Joseph Beuys, Sylvie Blocher, Marc Boucherot, Doniel Buren, Andre Codere, Jimmie Durham, Robert Filliou, Kendell Geers, Felix Gonzalez·Torres, Gregory Green, Carsten Holler, Joel Hubaut, Regine Kolle, Saverio Lucariello, Florence Manlik, Gordon Motta-Clark, David Medallo/ Adam Nankervis, Philippe Meste, Name Diffusion, Herve Poraponaris, Don Peterman, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Tobias Rehberger, Fronek Scurti, Simon Starling, Uri Tzaig, Nicolas Utiburu, Joep van Lieshout, Jacques Villegle
While making no claims to exhaustiveness, Miropolitiques will highlight different forms of new or recent art whose principle is based on social presence: street art, "the art of proximity" , "community art", so-called "inorganic" forms of urbon art, etc. The specificity of the works, or approaches, presented to the public lies in their non-assertive quality, their emphasis on grassroots presence and intimacy - in other words, in all those aspects which discreetly emphasis the value of "being-together", of links (we could speak here in terms of "link art", just as we do of mail art or land art).
Micropolitiques: the term calls for a little explanation. traditional political art, or at least its canonic forms of frontal engagement and critique, now seems just as ill suited to the rules of democratic existence as it does to the specific principles of art at the end of the 20th century. Many contemporary artists working in the social, public or politcal arenas have learnt from the risks of misenterpretation or recuperation that sooner or later come to vitiate classical political art. This takes an overall approach and is in the essence macropoloitcal. As they have become more modest, so socio-politcal positions and approaches have also become more realistic. Rather than claiming to make the world anew or proclaim the truth - an attitude implicit in the pompous universalist model of politcal art- this art sets out to probe existing forms of organisation or power, even, or especially at the local level. Recycled in public space as a living object, this kind of "link art" discreetly infiltrates the social space. There is no authoritarian posturing, just a simple and often politcal presence that reflects the etymological meaning of politics; that which concerns the city, its functioning, its collective identity.
Logically enough, the presentation will fall into two main parts: the exhibition itself on one side, and documentation on the other. To these will be added a third dimension constitued by interventions in and around Magasin and the town of Grenoble.