Nothing

Voids, an entire exhibition devoted to the art of nothing.

A retrospective of empty exhibitions since that of Yves Klein (1928-1962) in 1958, who invited thousands to view an empty, white-washed room.

This exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris was in 2009 one of the most radical show ever seen inside a museum. Stretched through nine rooms, completely empty, each one was the work of an artist from the past fifty years.

The best explaination of the show came from the curators themselves:

Bringing together propositions by Yves Klein, Robert Irwin, Laourie Parsons, Roman Ondak, Bethan Huws, Maria Eichhorn, Robert Berry and Art & Language, this very special retrospective includes only exhibitions that presented a completely space, gallery or museum.

It casts light on an element in art history that has long been neglected because it represents a challenge not only to the museums but also to the art market. At the same time it raises a number of questions, such as what is an exhibition? or the possibility to revive ephemeral works, known only through documentation and the memories of those who witnessed it?

An extreme minimalist experience, a refreshing reprieve to have so much room for contemplation, free for a moment to think about what we are going to do…

  1. pista
    21.11.10 14:22

    I got moments of thinking at home without paying any money to get in. I don’t think this got something to do with minimalism.

  2. Logan
    21.11.10 15:04

    Agreed. If this “exhibition” is empty then it’s just empty, not minimal. That’s pretty contrived…

  3. Canicus
    21.11.10 21:17

    Seriously. There’s minimalism and then there’s Nothing. ;-) I hope people expected this coming through the door. Otherwise,intriguing concept.

  4. ctd
    22.11.10 16:25

    Minimalism is like standing on the edge of a cliff, experiencing a magnificent view made possible by the simplicity of the ledge and absence of ground beyond it.
    Nothingism, a la this exhibit, is like taking one step beyond that point.

  5. Adrian
    23.11.10 09:37

    Nothingness can have a lot to do with minimalism; it is perhaps its extreme.

    This is seemingly good idea for an exhibition, although I don’t see how this works. Yves Klein and others, I assume, exhibited galleries of empty spaces as a way of highlighting the space of the spaces themselves. Re-creating the spaces for the purpose of the exhibition is kind of like the equivalent of covering John Cage’s 4′ 33”. Is there any point?

  6. pista
    28.11.10 15:53

    It may be a good parody for contemporary art which is constantly recycling ‘what is art’ issue but I think I’ll stick with Einstein’s “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

  7. Benoit
    28.11.10 20:33

    Thanks for your comments, great discussion.

    To fully understand and explore minimalism, you need to test the extreme.

    By replicating empty spaces, this retrospective tried to give visitors a way to revive ephemeral works from past fifty years. So going thru the nine empty rooms while reading the exhibition booklet, I believe that visitors were “forced” to take the time to think, question and share their emotions.

    Interesting to mention that the exhibition was not in the official museum program, a sort of recognition of the limit of such a concept! but still a great idea to further explore minimalism from my point of view.