Archipelago

With the exhibition Archipelthe Musée d'arts de Nantes continues the dialogue begun in 2014 with Jean-Jacques Lebel and the works of his Endowment Fund. From Marcel Duchamp to Francis Picabia or Yoko Ono, via Victor Hugo, Max Ernst or André Breton.
The works reveal the immense wealth of the Fund. The dialogue between them highlights the major themes (madness, eroticism, revolutions, etc.) and pays tribute to the well-known, little-known, forgotten or anonymous artists of the modern and contemporary world, so dear to Jean-Jacques Lebel (Antonin Artaud, Carolee Schneemann, Isabelle Waldberg, etc.).

The central structure and side galleries

Organized into several sections, the exhibition presents the structuring themes of the Fonds.
In the center of the Patio, a scaffolded structure weaves connections between the works installed there.
Echoing this, the Patio's side galleries and Salle 25, located on the second floor of the Palais, invite visitors to discover more intimate moments. Here we discover the works of writers who were also visual artists, such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Victor Hugo; but also rebellious spirits, from Dada to the Beat Generation, from Fluxus to the Polyphonix poetry festival; artists who experienced limit states, such as Henri Michaux and Antonin Artaud.

Jean-Jacques Lebel

Jean-Jacques Lebel has been a major figure on the art scene since the 1960s, as an artist and organizer of numerous collective events. He is notably known for being the first organizer of happenings in Europe.
A special relationship has linked this artist to the Musée d'arts de Nantes since 2014 with the exhibition Présenter l'irreprésentable - Alain Fleischer, Jean-Jacques Lebel et Danielle Schirman that the museum organized at Hangar à Bananes. Since then, the Fonds de dotation Jean-Jacques Lebel has pursued a close dialogue with the Musée d'arts. This was followed by the Itinéraires exhibition, presented at the Musée d'arts de Nantes in 2017 on the occasion of its reopening (June 2017-January 2018), which was the first presentation of the Jean-Jacques Lebel Endowment Fund in the institution, offering a portrait of the "artist-collector".

The Endowment Fund

The Jean-Jacques Lebel Endowment Fund, created in 2013, is a unique ensemble built up since the 1950s. The result of artist donations, exchanges with artist friends and Jean-Jacques Lebel's own choices, it now comprises more than 1,000 works. Its aim is to preserve and promote this major body of work, the fruit of artistic and intellectual ties and friendships.
The Fund's activities include designing and developing exhibitions, publications and cultural events. Since its creation, the Endowment Fund has granted numerous loans of works to French and international institutions (museums, foundations, biennials, etc.).

Artistic workshops for young and old around the exhibition Archipel, Jean-Jacques Lebel Endowment Fundto create at home.

Cadavre exquis workshop

Or how to draw a picture as a family.

Invented by the Surrealists, the exquisite corpse is a collective game "which consists in having several people compose a sentence, or a drawing, without any of them being able to take into account the previous collaboration or collaborations."(Le Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme, André Breton, 1938). Created between 1930 and 1933, the exquisite cadavers presented in Archipel show an unusual universe populated by creatures of all kinds against a black background.

In the style of the Surrealists, create your own exquisite corpse as a family!

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Cubomania workshop

Or how to revisit the works of the Musée d'arts de Nantes.

Cubomania", coined by the poet Ghérasim Luca, consists of a collage of various illustrations cut into equal squares, then glued together randomly to create a new image. The artist, who was close to the Surrealists, chose to dismember famous works from art history, with the aim of breaking the eye's visual habits.

Take a cue from Luca and get cubomanic with works from the Musée d'arts!

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