The Armory Show 2022: Wim Wenders and Claudine Drai

 

 

 

 

For this edition of The Armory Show, Maggiore g.a.m. will dedicate a special focus on the dialogue between the art of Claudine Drai and the video artwork "présence" by Wim Wenders, which had its premiere screening in Venice, realized by Palazzo Grassi/Pinault Collection, and was presented last May in collaboration with ACP - Art Capital Partners Palazzo Franchetti.

 

 

Claudine Drai is a French artist who has always investigated the relationship between the material and immaterial, between visible and invisible, combining paper, bronze, perfume, words and light in her artworks. On this occasion Maggiore g.a.m. will show a selection of refined works made of silk or tengucho paper, together with the unique opportunity to see the three-dimensional video artwork "présence" by Wim Wenders, worldwide recognized as one of the most significant Masters of contemporary cinema. The genesis of this work, shot in 3D between 2020 and 2021 and available in limited edition for museums and collectors, resides in the strong fascination felt by Wim Wenders when he first encountered the world of Claudine Drai. The fragility of her work, entirely made out of white paper, and the unique spiritual realm the filmmaker sensed, deeply moved him. He felt that her art was unique and distinctly different from anything he had ever seen, at the same time highly emotional and evocative. He wanted to find out more about this mysterious spiritual realm made mostly of white paper. In turn, Claudine Drai trusted him with her fragile and poetic world. In their subsequent conversations and meetings they decided to venture together into an unknown territory, going beyond a simple vision, giving life to a common creation, different from any cinematographic category and free from existing rules or forms of art.

 

 

Claudine Drai is not new to blending different worlds: in 2017 the exhibition project "Le lien des mondes" was based on the interaction between contemporary art, poetry, culinary art and high fashion, bringing together the starred chef Guy Martin, the fashion designer Hubert Barrère and the writer Olivier Kaeppelin alongside the artist. Also on this occasion, the project draws strength from the synaesthesia of different creative voices dialoguing with each other.

 

"présence" by Wim Wenders is screened daily in Maggiore g.a.m.'s booth no. 344 during the opening days and hours of The Armory Show.

 

Claudine Drai was born in Paris in 1951. Over the years, she has created worlds and spaces in which the feeling of the matter awakens all of our senses. The nature of her art is transformation. In 1994 she embarked on her first research on perfume, focusing on writing texts and integrating the sense of smell in her artworks, which she keeps pursuing even today. She created a great number of artworks for public commissions, in particular a monumental sculpture for the hall of the Saint-Camille hospital in Bry-sur-Marne (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation patronage). In 2008 she drew a triptych in tissue paper and pigments on canvas for the ecumenical space in the airport of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle: an universalistic work that establishes a connection between the three monotheistic religions. At the airport of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, also a sculpture was inaugurated in 2016, as a tribute to the victims of the attack, with the support of the group of ADP. Her creations now appear in prestigious private collections and have been exhibited in France and abroad: Centre Pompidou (Paris), Fondation Maeght (Saint-Paul-de-Vence), Fondation Ghisla (Locarno, Svizzera), Galleria Jérôme de Noirmont (Paris), La Piscine (Roubaix), Galleria Hasegawa (Tokyo, Japan), just to mention a few.

 

 

Wim Wenders (born 1945) is considered a pioneer of 1970s New German Cinema and one of the most important representatives of contemporary cinema. In addition to multi-award-winning feature films, such as Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire(1987), he has also created several innovative documentaries such as PINA, Buena Vista Social Club, The Salt of the Earth and Pope Francis - A Man of his Word. Wenders is a director, producer, photographer and author; his photographic work has been exhibited in museums around the world, and his output includes numerous photo books, film books and collections of essays.

Between 2019 and 2020, together with his production company Road Movies, Wim Wenders also produced two art installations: EMOTION, a monumental seven-stream projection based on Wenders' most iconic films, created with and for the Grand Palais in Paris; and Two Or Three Things I Know About Edward Hopper, a 3D film installation created for the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Foundation Beyeler in 2020, which was entirely shot in Butte, Montana.