Francois Morellet, ‘Réinstallations’ at Centre Pompidou

Réinstallations is the Pompidou’s latest exhibition in a series dedicated to important figures in the world of contemporary art. Starting off as an abstract painter in the 1950s, and then moving on to the more scientific Neo-Plasticism of Mondrian, Morellet came to installations in the early 60s. Always inspired by and in constant dialogue with their direct environment, being anything from a tree to the banks of the Seine, the idea of exhibiting 26 of these installations in the white cubed walls of the Pompidou’s Gallery 2 initially seems a little counter-intuitive. However, perhaps largely due to Morellet’s own creative input in it, the exhibition succeeds in not only maintaining the original vibrancy of the works, but also in giving them an additional breathe of life; As a new environment and context, they now work with and within each other, adding another element of dialogue to these complex living spaces.
The works on display do have one strong common thread; the idea of the neutrality of lines and rigid shapes and how this neutrality can generate the idea of repetitiveness and infinity – the underlying notion being that one simple single line could go on forever, never meeting it’s parallel. A very common minimalist idea. But in Réinstallations this idea of linear endless continuity is hugely re-interpreted, to the point where its total antithesis is revealed; lines and seemingly fixed structures transform into a forceful representation of impermanence. Our idea of lines is re-created and re-placed into a new context, much like the installations themselves – as such, the exhibition lives up to its “re” prefix.
“Reflections in water distorted by the spectator” consists of a grid of neon lights displayed on the ceiling above a square of water, so that they are reflected within it. The spectator is invited to pull a leaver so that the water moves, thus causing the seemingly rigid reflection to bend out of shape, the ripples turning lines into curves and the light blurring distinctions and boundaries. The permanence of the neon grid is, within seconds, totally destroyed. Lines no longer represent an immovable, endless force as they turn instead into a powerful image of changeability, movement and impermanence.
The interactive nature of many of the installations puts this change from rigidity to flexibility into the hands of the spectator. The piece “Red” consists of the word ROUGE illuminated in white and red light; but whilst the spectator presses a button to further illuminate the piece, the colours change and the letters disappear and reappear according to how long ones eyes are focused on the image. Watch for thirty seconds and only red and white colours are visible. Watch for three minutes (with as few blinks as possible) and the ROUGE turns into green, then blue then disappears altogether. Our will, our decision, changes what we see and how we see it. Even Art, represented in an image of the Mona Lisa, can be altered. By pressing a button, a gust of wind is blown onto a fabric recreation of the painting. The infamous face is distorted, much like the ripples of the water, and we are forced to doubt our knowledge of even the most well-established piece of Art, which turns out also to be just as changeable as our volatile eyes.
Playing with the elements of light, wind and water,Morellet’s installations expose that everything is changeable, nothing is infinite. And the brilliance of having them all in one place as opposed to their usual solitary existence is that the spectator continues throughout the exhibition to be relentlessly faced with this notion. So much so, in fact, that even our very own bodies begin to reflect it. We turn into an extension of the art: variable, impermanent and in a self-inflicted state of fragility. Having played too much with the interactive lights, I walked out of the exhibition feeling giddily stunned and dizzy, with eyes that were seeing colours in the clouds and light where there was none.
 
Réinstallations is on at the Pompidou Centre Paris until July 4^th 2011
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/