Sarah Sze and Vija Celmins: From the Collection of the Fondation Cartier

This event will be held in English.

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A conference delivered by Curator Leanne Sacramone on the works of Sarah Sze and Vija Celmins.

Although their visual languages are distinct, Sarah Sze and Vija Celmins both create labor-intensive works that reflect an extraordinary attention to materials. Armed with a nuanced palette of blacks and grays, Celmins painstakingly “redescribes” photographic images of the ocean, the night sky, and the desert with an uncanny accuracy, working for months on a single image. Sarah Sze constructs intricate architectural installations from the minutiae of everyday life, including still and moving images of spewing geysers, erupting volcanoes, and moonlit skies. Using pencil, paint, print and pixels, these two artists explore the nature of time and memory and our relationship to the cosmos. Their work reminds us that the images surrounding us exist in the unceasing interaction between the physical and the mental.

The series

Unearthing the Collection: American Narratives is presented by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Join Curator Leanne Sacramone and embark on a journey through the soundscapes, skyscapes, and landscapes of American artists from the collection of the Fondation Cartier.

Host

Leanne Sacramone is currently Curator at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris. She joined the staff at the Fondation Cartier in 2001 and has since organized close to twenty exhibitions. She has notably contributed to making known on the French art scene the history of graffiti in Born in the Streets: Graffiti (2009), the art of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Beauté Congo-Congo Kitoko (2016) and the work of Latin American photographers in America Latina (2013). Leanne values the wide-ranging and cross-disciplinary programming of the Fondation Cartier, which has led her to collaborate with painters and sculptors, photographers, designers, comic strip artists, and thinkers. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, she has been based in Paris since 1992. She studied French Language and Literature at Smith College and Art History at the Ecole du Louvre and the Université Paris I Sorbonne.

Organizers

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is a private cultural institution whose mission is to promote all fields of contemporary artistic creation to the international public through a program of temporary exhibitions, live performances and lectures. 

The Columbia Global Paris Center addresses pressing global issues that are at the forefront of international education and research: agency and gender; climate and the environment; critical dialogues for just societies; encounters in the arts; and health and medical science.

The Paris Center is part of Columbia Global, which brings together major global initiatives from across the university to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. Its mission is to address complex global challenges through groundbreaking scholarly pursuits, leadership development, cutting-edge research, and projects that aim for social impact. Its long-term goal is to reimagine the university’s role in society as not only a nexus for learning and intellectual exploration but also as a catalyst for creativity and impact locally, regionally, and globally. Columbia Global includes eleven Global Centers, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Committee on Global Thought, and Columbia World Projects.

Venue

Nestled in the Montparnasse district, Reid Hall hosts several Columbia University initiatives: the Columbia Global Paris Center, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Columbia Undergraduate Programs, M.A. in History and Literature, and the GSAPP Shape of Two Cities Program. This unique combination of resources is enhanced by our global network whose mission is to expand the University's engagement the world over through educational programs, research initiatives, regional partnerships, and public events.

The views and opinions expressed by speakers and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of the Columbia Global Paris Center or its affiliates.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, Paris, France