The columns of Buren in the gardens of the Royal Palace are controversial. The construction site is not finished, but the critics are acerbic: "it’s money fucked up air...what is serious is what we deliver to those who will come behind us". As for the artist, he does not understand the stoppage of the work decided by the Paris City Hall, he summons his moral right.
Daniel Buren confided the interest of exhibiting in the street and opposed it to the institution. According to him, the interest lies in being able to make experiments in the street ("the most interesting place to do things") in order "to bring a huge bowl of oxygen"
Art critic Pierre RESTANY revisits the approach of the artist Yves Klein. He had organized a demonstration whose walls were completely empty, he proposed to the guests to varnish them. According to him, it was Yves Klein’s presence in the gallery that caused the scandal.
A retrospective on Yves Klein, curious visitors, an art critic and a journalist who goes to meet them: "I find it modern, and it’s fantastic, it’s bright, it’s beautiful".
Interviewed, gallerist Iris CLERT talks about her meeting with Yves Klein. She evokes the day when Klein brought her a very small orange monochrome painting: "...I bring you my work, I tell her: ah what is it? This is a monochrome proposal! So I say listen, you don’t care about the world...".
A first in contemporary art, Damien Hirst sold his works at Sotheby’s before exhibiting them. It does not pass through the usual circuit of the art gallery or museum. In the middle of the exhibition of his works, he gives us his vision of art: "everyone seems to think that an artist must be poor, I find it crazy".
L'artiste plasticienne Orlan fait une performance, elle propose "un baiser d'artiste" à cinq francs. Face à un spectateur sceptique, elle relativise (en parlant de monsieur tout le monde) : "ça va le faire marrer au moins mon truc c'est déjà bien, après une journée de travail". Interview ensuite de Michèle Broutta, éditrice d'art, qui a du mal à inscrire la performance d'Orlan dans une démarche artistique.
Portrait of the artist Sophie CALLE, who has marked the contemporary art of the last thirty years. She currently exhibits at the Venice Biennale, where she stages moments of her life. In an interview, she explains that she wanted to evoke a breakup that made her suffer. The interviews of Emmanuel PERROTIN, gallery director and specialist of the art market, and Robert GARCIA, exhibition curator, complete this portrait by giving some keys on his approach
Marcel DUCHAMP talks about the economic integration of art in American society, considered a speculative and not artistic value. For him art has lost its esotericism by addressing the greatest number.