Société Réaliste: "Empire, State, Building"

The title of the exhibition, “Empire, State, Building,” refers to three aspects of Société Réaliste’s work.
First of all, “Empire, State, Building” obviously evokes the famous New York skyscraper, the “building/temple/monument/work of art” that, ever since its completion in 1931, has been both a myth and emblem of the United States, and a source of artistic inspiration (from the Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack film King Kong in 1933 to Empire, Andy Warhol’s silent movie, made in 1964).
Secondly, the exhibition explores the possibilities of punctuation, insofar as it can be used to order or disorder discourse.
Finally, the name of the myth, when altered by the disorder of signs, becomes something different, a grid decreasing the scales of perception and power, from empire to building, via the state.

These three perspectives underlie this exhibition of the latest work by Société Réaliste, articulated around two pivotal pieces: The Fountainhead (2010) and Culte de l’Humanitée (Cult of She-manity, 2011).

Société Réaliste is a Parisian cooperative created by Ferenc Gróf and Jean-Baptiste Naudy in June 2004. It works with political design, experimental economy, territorial ergonomy and social engineering consulting. Polytechnic, it develops its production schemes through exhibitions, publications and conferences. Société Réaliste is represented by Galerie Martine Aboucaya (Paris) and Kisterem (Budapest).

> CURATORS
Société Réaliste and Marta Gili (Jeu de Paume, Paris).

> PARTNERS
This exhibition is coproduced by Jeu de Paume, Paris and the Ludwig Múzeum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest. It will be presented in Budapest from 2 February to 22 April 2012.
It was organised with the aid of the Hungarian Institute in Paris.

> MEDIA PARTNERS
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