PARIS.- As the exhibition ‘The Keys to a Passion’ brings out, the contemporary Collection of the Fondation Louis Vuitton which it echoes is devised in accordance with four axes of receptivity entitled contemplative, subjective expressionist, popist, and music / sound. After two previous displays, the first featuring a limited choice of works embodying these axes and the second a selection based around two of them, the subjective expressionist and the contemplative, this third hang focuses on artists concerned with the popist and music / sound axes.

The 3rd Hang takes place in two phases: from 3rd June, 2015 a group of works are being displayed over three levels of the Foundation (in Galleries 4 to 11, the ‘Observatory’, the Studio, and in the interstitial spaces), and then, from 25th July, 2015, a complementary presentation will occupy the rooms on Level –1 vacated by the exhibition ‘Keys to a Passion’.

The ‘popist’ works testify to the ongoing interest of artists for the objects and images vehicled by advertising, TV, film, and, latterly, the Internet.

The ‘music / sound’ line presents installations and videos showing the musical component as an integral component of the artwork.

From 25th July, 2015, the rooms on Level –1 will present video and sound installations that exemplify the role of pop and the new music scene in the work of contemporary artists.

It is worth noting that a number of commissions, some linked to the Foundation building, remain on show during the exhibition: Olafur Eliasson, Ellsworth Kelly, Adrian Villar Rojas, and Cerith Wyn Evans.

The exhibition display room by room
1/ ‘Popist’ axis ‘Popist’ works testify to the interest of the artists in an everyday urban reality dominated by consumerism and the media.

Level 0
Gallery 4: The vast triptych by Gilbert & George, Class War, Militant, Gateway (1986), refers to the difficulties experienced by the young in finding their place in society.

Opposite this piece hang four spectacular photographs from the series F1 Boxenstopp I–IV (2007) by Andreas Gursky, veritable pictorial compositions of Formula One pitstops, fragments of which were developed on computer.

The two large format works by Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Intermission: Halloween Afghanistan 1 (Captain America) (2011) and Intermission (Halloween Iraq IV) (2010) on the last wall refer in a highly critical manner to the celebration of Halloween by the US military during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the exterior wall of the Gallery, the Blue Cowboys (1994, 1999) by Richard Prince, inspired by ad campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes, play on the clichés around the foundation myth of the cowboy.

On the corridor ceiling, the helium-filled balloons of Philippe Parreno’s Speech Bubbles (2007) reference the bubbles used in cartoons.

Level 1
Gallery 5: The core of the work by the artists showcased here is occupied by references to the now globalized North American popular culture and to contemporary multicultural societies. At the outset, the installation Crossfire (2007) by Christian Marclay plunges visitors into the core of a piece in which a firearm is used as a percussion instrument.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Grillo (1984) is characterised by the cultural diversity of its sources (fetishes from both African and Caribbean cultures, collage, Rauschenberg-style recycling, street art…).

It’s cool man (1998) by Michel Majerus interlards various allusions: from shaped canvas to abstract expressionism, from pop art to minimalist monochrome.

In Matty and Esteban — two photographs of inordinately ‘stretch’ limousines printed on sponge — Adam McEwen presents an ironic view of this kitsch archetype of international luxury.

And finally Andy Warhol is represented on the one hand, by Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980), Warhol’s artistic and intellectual pantheon, and on the other by Ladies and Gentleman (1975), a tribute to various figures from the New York underground.

Gallery 6: Features a selection of pieces by Bertrand Lavier, an artist whose work in the spirit of Pop Art and Nouveau Réalisme scrambles the codes and breaks down the barriers between art and the everyday world: La Boca sur Zanker (2005), Birka (2007), Atomium, détail No. 10 (2007), and Walt Disney Productions 1947–2013 No. 2 (2013). These are followed by an installation by Surtevant entitled Rock and Rap / c Simulacra, 2012, made up of a montage of images and sounds with a highly syncopated beat.

Observatory: Mimicking the trappings of a training course, the video La valeur du produit (2013) by Mohamed Bourouissa is an ironic extrapolation of an economics lesson.

Gallery 7: presents a group of painted and Polaroid self-portraits by Warhol from 1963 to 1986.

2/ Music / sound axis
The second axis of Hang 3 concentrates on music and sound, with works taking the form of environments, sound sculptures, and videos, in which music is used as a fundamental material of the artwork.

Level 1 Interstitial space: Viva España (2004) by Pilar Albarracin bears ironic witness to the violence latent in the man / woman relationship.

Studio: The film Chorspiel (1974) by Ulla von Brandenburg mixes the aesthetic of performance with an extremely enigmatic theatrical universe.

Level 2
Interstitial spaces: Extended Lullaby by John Cage functions as a musical box with twelve keys that can be activated simultaneously or successively, and is composed of a collage of fragments lifted from Erik Satie’s score, Vexations.

Gallery 8: constituted from deckchairs and metronomes, the installation Rejuvenator of the Astral Balance (2000) by Marina Abramović proffers an invitation to meditation.

Gallery 9: K.364 (2010) by Douglas Gordon: two Israeli violinists travel by train from Berlin to Poland to perform Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. The work submerges the viewer in an emotional experience revolving around memory.

Gallery 11: Father and Son (1998) by Jaan Toomik: the fragile voice of a child singing Gregorian chant accompanies the movements of a skater through a primordial and infinite space-time.

Gallery 10: the display closes with the extended presentation of Man in Mud (2009) by Thomas Schütte and A=F=L=O=A=T (2014) by Cerith Wyn Evans, in which 20 glass flutes play aleatoric music inspired by the architecture of Frank Gehry.