Fifteen years after launching the Monumenta series at the Grand Palais in 2007, Anselm Kiefer was the first artist to occupy the entire space of the Grand Palais Éphémère with a new project, at the invitation of the Rmn Grand Palais. With For Paul Celan, Anselm Kiefer continued his work on European memory, in which France and Germany are the key players. In this exhibition, sculptures, installations and 19 large-scale canvases interacted with the elusive poetry of the great German poet Paul Celan. Paul Celan's work has been a constant presence in Anselm Kiefer's paintings, from his adolescence, when he discovered the poem Todesfuge (Death Fugue), to this day with this new group of paintings. This dialogue has intensified in recent years, particularly in 2020, during the time of lockdown. Curated by Chris Dercon, this exhibition took place at a time when France was taking over the presidency of the European Union. It was built in the form of prologue, as if, in the words of Anselm Kiefer, Madame de Staël were addressing Germany . For Paul Celan's paintings were displayed in a space devoid of classical scenography and picture rails, without any chronology, like unprocessed memories of our human existence.
AROUND THE EXHIBITION This remarkable installation was accompanied by two events. First, a conversation between Anselm Kiefer and Camille Morineau, chaired by Chris Dercon, took place in the Eiffel Room of the Grand Palais Éphémère. Morineau asked the artist about his creative process, and particularly about the place of women in his work.
Then, to close the exhibition, the actor Anne Consigny gave a performance entitled: J ai grandi au bord du Rhin ( I grew up on the banks of the Rhine ). Standing before the artist s immense painting, Als Arche verließ es die Straße, ( Like an Ark she left the Street ), Consigny read extracts of the speech Anselm Kiefer gave in Frankfurt when he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.
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