European visual and digital art
Free admission – December 18th – 31st 2008, from 5pm to 1am
Closing at 9pm on December 31st
Grand Palais, Paris

Concert / performance by Jeff Mills: Thursday December 18, 2008 at 8.30pm
Free entry (within capacity)

Bal Blanc: Saturday December 20 at 9pm
Free entry (within capacity)

For 14 nights, from December 18th to 31st, visual arts will take over the Grand Palais: 10 years of contemporary creation and artistic and audiovisual innovation from the 27 European Union member states and numerous other countries.

The Ministry of Culture and Communication (Délégation aux Arts Plastiques and Centre National des Arts Plastiques) concludes the cultural dimension of France’s presidency of the European Union and the European Cultural Season with an exceptional showing of contemporary creation and artistic and audiovisual innovation in the nave of the Grand Palais.
The event, entitled “Dans la nuit, des images” (Images in the night), is staged in partnership with Le Fresnoy - National Studio for Contemporary Arts, a leading venue for creation, innovation and artistic and audiovisual research in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region.
For 14 nights, “Dans la nuit, des images” will present a unique panorama of European audiovisual and multimedia creation. The public will discover works by young artists and by established international names such as Thierry Kuntzel, Bob Wilson, Bill Viola, William Klein, Michael Snow and William Kentridge.
A selection of iconic works using light projection – photographs, films, videos, digital imagery and interactive installations from plasma screens to giant projections – will document the technological novations that have become part of artistic creation over the past ten years. We have been witness to a technological revolution, not least as digital technology has become part of our lives. Artists have seized on these new tools and new media to express and share their vision of the world. After the early years spent mastering these new techniques, digital artworks have now achieved a degree of poetry and emotion with which everyone can engage, including those who are unfamiliar with contemporary art.

Some 140 works will be presented by international artists, including from the European Union’s 27 member states. Some of these works are being shown for the first time, including those specially commissioned for the event. Collectively, they will offer an unprecedented sight within the nave of the Grand Palais. Projected onto the floor and walls, on screens and onto the huge glass roof and façade, they will transform the Grand Palais into a giant tropical hothouse or a vast aviary filled with images. Light and images will be sent out into the heart of Paris, inviting the public to join in a magical celebration of art and creation in keeping with
the festive spirit of the holiday season.
The event will open with an european symposium on the theme Vitesses limites (Speed limits). Scientists, academics, philosophers, engineers, athletes, artists and dancers will debate the multiple forms that speed takes in today’s society, from fast Internet connexions and real-time data transfer to sporting records, high-speed trains and the conquest of space. A round-table debate will look at the productive relations between the business and art worlds in their contribution to research and innovation.

“Dans la nuit, des images” is staged by

the European Cultural Season,
the French Ministry of Culture and
Communication (Délégation aux Arts
Plastiques and Centre National des Arts
Plastiques)
and Le Fresnoy – National Studio for
Contemporary Arts,
with support from the Etablissement Public
du Grand Palais,
the Nord – Pas-de-Calais region
and Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine.

The exhibition enjoys the support of:
Orange

Fondation Total
EDF
Fondation Lagardère
Arianespace

France Info
France Télévisions

Le Fresnoy
National Studio for Contemporary Arts
Opened in 1997 and conceived and directed by Alain Fleischer, Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Arts is devoted to audiovisual, digital and multimedia creation. A centre for training and research, and for the production and diffusion of art, it stands at one of the major European crossroads. It enables young artists from around the world to produce works using professionalstandard equipment under the guidance of guest teachers, chosen among the greatest names in art today, such as Jean-Luc Godard, Chantal Akerman, Bruno Dumont, Jochen Gerz and Tsai Ming Liang. (Jointly financed by the Ministry of
Culture and Communication, the Nord–Pas-de-Calais region and the City of Tourcoing).