KGC Marc Olivier Walher from Bridget Carron on Vimeo.
Normally when we think of an artistic medium we think of paint, canvas or metal — or, if we're getting really experimental, socks — but we rarely think of an entire art exhibition as a medium in itself. Yet that is exactly what curator Marc-Olivier Wahler does with "From Triple X To Birdsong (In Search Of The Schizophrenic Quotient)."
The title references two works in the show — François Morellet's light installation, “Triple X Neonly" and Hannah Rickards' "Birdsong." The "schizophrenic quotient" becomes the ability of an artwork to jump between multiple meanings and understandings, an ability Wahler searched for in his curation process. The French ex-pat relocated to LA after serving for six years as the director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, exploring the physical experience of moving through a gallery in which images, ideas and interpretations are in constant flux. "I always start with the space," he says in the video above.
Wahler placed careful attention on the negative space of the gallery as well as on the artworks themselves. "The exhibition is the only medium that you can physically move through," he told Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery. "By moving, our body enters into a system of physical correspondences with the works. And what if the task of the curator was precisely the management of this negative space?"
Using the exhibition as his medium, Wahler conjured important artists he believed were not represented or well-known in the Los Angeles art scene. The airy LA gallery will house a diverse selection of site-specific works, from an auditory piece by Hannah Rickards to a dizzying starry sky painted by Ugo Rondinone, responsible for the New Museum's beloved "Hell, Yes!" installation.
"From Triple X To Birdsong (In Search Of The Schizophrenic Quotient)" runs until March 9, 2013 at Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles. To see more of Wahler's unusual exhibitions, check out "LOST (in LA)" at "LOST (in LA)" at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
