Meant as an homage to Paul Cézanne (2006 marked the hundredth anniversary of his death), Cézanne’s Eyes and Hands brings together works that examine modern art and the importance of landscape for human beings, while exploring the passage from reality to fiction.
The exhibition is composed of seven pieces (videos, installations and photographs) that explore with humour and insight the world of Cézanne, recycling and updating themes, motifs, stories and issues related to the painter’s approach and practice as well as his social and geographical environment. For example, a static video showing Glenn Lewis as he paints Mount Sainte-Victoire recalls not only Cézanne’s determination to capture the shapes of the landscape but also the fine workings of perception, whereas a series of photographs showing local residents sitting at a table in an Aix-en-Provence bar evokes Cézanne’s famous Card Players. Also part of the exhibition: an installation staging the painter’s cloak and hat with skull, a documentary work evocative of his joyful trips on the Arc River, an assemblage inspired by the investigations of Poe’s Auguste Dupin, and a multi-video installation with Aix’s fountains based on an trivial encounter between Cézanne and Manet.
