English
See here the « teaser » of the virtual visit of the exhibition, to be online soon:
DISOBEY ORDERS, SAVE THE ARTISTS
Exhibition prolonged until 30 January 2021 at
54 rue des Flots Bleus – Marseille – France
Wednesday to Saturday, from 3 to 5:30 pm.
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DISCOVER
Serigraphs and Playing Cards available at The American Gallery
Disobey Orders, Save the Artists
Shocked at the persecution he witnessed during a visit to Berlin in 1935, American journalist Varian Fry attempted to alert the authorities and general public on his return to New York, to little avail.
In 1940, after the occupation of France, he traveled to Marseille as an agent of the Emergency Rescue Committee, with an initial list of 200 artists, intellectuals, writers and anti-fascist militants that had to be saved from the clutches of the Nazis. Defying the Vichy regime, and the hierarchy of his own US government, Varian Fry would stay in France much longer than planned, obtaining visas and forged papers for almost 2000 persons. Some of them were secretly housed at the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille while awaiting exfiltration.
By organizing the escape to New York, via Spain and Portugal, of so many eminent artists and intellectuals – Hannah Arendt, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ophüls, Wanda Landowska, Tristan Tzara, and Heinrich Mann included – Varian Fry would contribute to the transfer of a vital and subversive part of the Parisian artistic and intellectual scene to New York, lastingly refashioning the contemporary art world for the post-war period.
The DISOBEY ORDERS, SAVE THE ARTISTS project involves reenacting this heroic drama in a subversive, inventive, thoughtful and playful approach through contemporary art, where each artist takes under their wing once again some of the great figures saved by Varian Fry, and by organizing unique artistic events in the heart of Marseille during Manifesta 13. The project is twofold:
1 In “Thirteen Aegises of Art,” thirteen international artists each pay tribute to Varian Fry by honoring one of his protégés, symbolically reproducing the saving gesture that Fry organized from Marseille across geographical and political boundaries.
See the Thirteen Aegises and meet their artists here
2 In “The Nouveau Jeu de Marseille,” seven Marseille artists reinvent the famous deck of cards that the Surrealists had drawn while hiding at Villa Air-Bel, a paradigmatic example of the power of artistic creation – not without beauty, humor, and philosophical relevance – in the face of a political situation of uncertainty, fear and horror.
Gérard Traquandi, the 4 Aces of the Nouveau Jeu de Marseille, 2020.
Meet the artists of the Nouveau Jeu de Marseille and see their cards here.
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With generous support from:
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Driss Aroussi – Aegis for Max Ernst.
Gilles Barbier – Collective Aegis.
Pascal Convert – Aegis for Victor Serge.
Monique Deregibus – Aegis for Jacqueline Lamba.
gethan&myles in collaboration with Cuban artist Nestor Siré – Aegis for Marcel Duchamp and Wifredo Lam.
Sharka Hyland – Aegis for Franz Werfel.
Naomie Kremer – Aegis for Alma Mahler.
Catherine Melin – Aegis for Sophie Taeuber.
Yazid Oulab – Aegis for Jacques Hadamard.
Michel Pastore – Musiques Interdites – Aegis for Jan Meyerowitz.
Christian Sebille – Aegis for Hannah Arendt.
Jacques Villeglé – Aegis for Camille Bryen et Wols.
Stéphane Zagdanski – Aegis for Tristan Tzara.
The American Gallery is located at 54 rue des Flots Bleus 13007 in Marseille, France.
To get to The American Gallery by public transportation:
From the Old Port, take Bus line 83, and get off at the stop « Fausse Monnaie », on Corniche Kennedy.
Take the stairs behind the restaurant Le Ruhl, which are part of the Rue des Flots Bleus.
The entrance to the gallery is about 100 meters up the hill on the left.
Disobey Orders, Save the Artists 