The Vitruvian Man

Planned with the Crédac's new venue in mind (the Manufacture des Œillets, or Grommet Factory, in Ivry), this show features works of art that touch on the industrial world, the gradual disappearance of shop-floor know-how, and union movements in factories yesterday and today.

The exhibition took shape around a realization, that the famous Manpower logo with Leonardo's "Vitruvian man," the symbol of man at the center of work, had in fact disappeared a few years ago in favor of an abstract image. L'Homme de Vitruve brings together international artists who are acutely aware of the phenomenon of deindustrialization and the past of now abandoned factories, and who view the work world as an apt subject for an archeology of the present age.

The Grommet Factory is emblematic of the history of Ivry, which only yesterday was still an industrial town. The building, which also houses a school of architecture and graphic arts, and soon a national center for theater, is also representative of another phenomenon, the current vogue in refurbishing and repurposing factories as art venues that transform this heritage into a cultural destination.

Now a production site of a different sort, artistically directed in this case, the Manufacture has been taken over by artists, who, like archeologists, ethnologists, archivists, or engineers, weigh the legacy of workers and commemorate this heritage through their own creative endeavors. Opposed to productivity, their pieces highlight the process of work and its human context.

There is an empty pedestal still standing in Ivry that once held a sculpture sixty years ago. Sporting the inscription "Homage to work," this non-monument strangely resonates as a local and universal symbol of the "Vitruvian man" who has been rendered invisible.

The Vitruvian Man
Kurator: Claire Le Restif

Künstler: Bertille Bak, Bernd und Hilla Becher, Simon Boudvin, Mircea Cantor, Harun Farocki, Jacques Faujour, Alexander Gutke, Louise Herve & Chloe Maillet, Jannis Kounellis, Auguste Lumiere & Louis Lumiere, Jean-Luc Moulene, Jorge Satorre, Richard Serra, Boris Taslitzky, Thu Van Tran.