PRESS RELEASE

TAKE ME (I’M YOURS) 

FROM 16 SEPTEMBER TO 8 NOVEMBER 2015

From 16 September to 8 November 2015, Monnaie de Paris presents Take Me (I'm Yours), a collective and interactive exhibition which brings together the work of forty-four international artists under the curatorship of Christian Boltanski, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Chiara Parisi. 

Transformed into Paul McCarthy's Chocolate Factory for its reopening in October 2014 and then in Marcel Broodthaers' Musée d’Art Moderne – Département des Aigles, Monnaie de Paris is once again inviting visitors to rediscover its spaces through to an unusual artistic project: Take Me (I’m Yours) will turn the Quai de Conti’s 18th-century rooms into a venue for free and creative exchange, designed to unsettle the conventional relationship between a work of art and its viewer. Visitors are invited, even encouraged, to touch, use and take away the artists’ projects and ideas.

The exhibition curators, Christian Boltanski and Hans Ulrich Obrist, have taken the original principle which motivated them in 1995 at the Serpentine Gallery and brought it up to date. They are joined by Chiara Parisi, director of Monnaie de Paris cultural programmes, who brings a fresh perspective. With more than forty projects, the Paris exhibition is greater in magnitude and scope. The project sees the return of artists who took part in the first event (Christian Boltanski, Maria Eichhorn, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Jef Geys, Gilbert & George, Douglas Gordon, Christine Hill, Carsten Höller, Fabrice Hyber, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lawrence Weiner and Franz West), and has given rise to new collaborations (Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal, Paweł Althamer, Kerstin Brätsch & Sarah Ortmeyer, James Lee Byars, Heman Chong, Jeremy Deller, Andrea Fraser, Gloria Friedmann, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Bertrand Lavier, Jonathan Horowitz, Koo Jeong-A, Alison Knowles, Angelika Markul, Gustav Metzger, Otobong Nkanga, Roman Ondák, Yoko Ono, Philippe Parreno, Sean Raspet, Takako Saito, Daniel Spoerri, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Amalia Ulman, Franco Vaccari, Danh Võ and the artists Ho Rui An, Felix Gaudlitz and Charlie Malgat from 89plus, the multiplatform international research project designed to map the generation born on and after 1989 by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets. The exhibition is also an outlet for distributing issues of point d'ironie (agnès b.).

Displayed on the walls of the last factory in the centre of Paris, the exhibition is an opportunity to revisit the myth of the unique artwork and question its methods of production. Like coins, works of art are destined to be disseminated. This exhibition, designed to create interaction between visitors and artists, is characterised by its open form which evolves in time. When it ends, the pieces will have disappeared, distributed in their entirety. Going beyond conventional economic channels, Take Me (I’m Yours) will present a model based on exchange and sharing, thus raising questions about the exchange value of art, an issue of fundamental importance to Monnaie de Paris.

 The talents of the artists involved enable the public to overcome the physical and moral barrier separating them from works of art as they appropriate them and give them a new lease of life.

The artists choose to give visitors a variety of objects, created specifically for the exhibition - such as the wishbones produced on a 3D printer (Angelika Markul) - or in the artist's studio (Simone Fattal). Other examples include badges (Gilbert & George), DVDs which gradually wipe their content 

as they are played (Philippe Parreno), bookmarks made of leather (Amalia Ulman), lost property such as clothing that can be taken away in a bag (Christian Boltanski), objects that we are all familiar with such as small models of the Eiffel Tower (Hans-Peter Feldmann), paper items like cards featuring the names of poets (Etel Adnan), brochures offering a cultural service to institutions and companies (Andrea Fraser), a biography with a selection of works by the three curators of the exhibition (Maria Eichhorn), pink paper confetti bearing the words "Be Quiet" (James Lee Byars), business cards painted in black (Heman Chong), posters, (Felix Gonzalez-Torres), stencils, tattoos (Lawrence Weiner), postcards (Hans-Peter Feldmann, Yoko Ono, Danh Võ), a newspaper specially published for Monnaie de Paris (Jef Geys) and magazines created by artists (point d’ironie). Artists also present works which disappear through consumption by visitors such as tins of sardines and pieces of a marzipan skeleton (Daniel Spoerri), distilled rose water with holy wafers (Rirkrit Tiravanija), pills with unknown effects (Carsten Höller), sky-blue sweets (Felix Gonzalez-Torres) and eggs (Kerstin Brätsch & Sarah Ortmeyer).  

Visitors may also participate in other forms of interaction such as monetary transactions to acquire an object, especially by vending machine (Fabrice Hyber, Christine Hill, Yoko Ono), but also through bartering (Paweł Althamer, Roman Ondák) or even a self-service area (Jonathan Horowitz, Bertrand Lavier, Sean Raspet, Wolfgang Tillmans).  The public is also invited to follow the instructions given by the artists to take part in a game (Douglas Gordon), to personalise objects (Jeremy Deller), or contribute to the daily creation of a work (Gustav Metzger, Yoko Ono, Franco Vaccari, Lawrence Weiner).  Other artists offer a service to visitors such as a chance to have a rest (Franz West) or take a dog for a walk (Koo Jeong-A).

With each day that passes, it is the show’s visitors who will transform it. The exhibition extends beyond the rooms dedicated to it: artists will use the Google app (Charlie Malgat and Ho Rui An) to offer a virtual tour combining the exhibition's past at the Serpentine in London in 1995, its present at the Monnaie de Paris in 2015, and its future - with forthcoming versions destined to travel further afield.   It also makes its presence felt at the stand of a Parisian bouquiniste - a second-hand bookseller opposite Monnaie de Paris (Felix Gaudlitz) - and gets a breath of fresh air every day through the actions of the artists who surprise visitors during impromptu artistic interventions: featuring Etel Adnan, Paweł Althamer, James Lee Byars, Kerstin Brätsch & Sarah Ortmeyer, Gloria Friedmann, Gilbert & George, Fabrice Hyber, Alison Knowles, Otobong Nkanga, Roman Ondák, Sean Raspet, Takako Saito et Daniel Spoerri (during the exhibition and more frequently during the FIAC from 22 to 24 October).  Alongside these events, the writer Federico Nicolao will post a daily report on the exhibition on Instagram (#kikerikidide).

On 16 and 17 September, a special event will take place in the Paris metro to mark the opening of the exhibition, during which passengers will be invited to take pieces of the poster with them. This part of the poster will give them free entry for one person to the exhibition (station corridors:  Châtelet; Opéra; Saint Lazare; Montparnasse; Nation; République; Gare de l’Est; Place d’Italie)

Founded in 864, Monnaie de Paris is the oldest of French institutions. Its artistic workshops in Paris have been in existence since 1775.

Monnaie de Paris is committed to an ambitious transformation of its Parisian buildings in order to present this vast heritage to visitors. Since 2014, the new cultural presentation has included: an arts programme based on large-scale projects commissioned to experienced and emerging artists (Rob Pruitt, John Baldessari, Mohamed Bourouissa, Paul McCarthy, Marcel Broodthaers, etc.) in the restored 18th-century rooms opposite Guy Savoy's gastronomic restaurant.

The Take me (I’m Yours) exhibition has been created in association with Eva Albarran and Three Steps to Heaven. It is supported by agnès b., Ecotextile, Kolor GoPro, Google Cultural Institute, 89plus, Photomaton, Presstalis and Sony.