James Lee Byars - The Perfect Axis From: 11.09.2010 to 16.01.2011 Location: Museum of European Garden History;
JAMES LEE BYARS
THE PERFECT AXIS
Museum Corps de Logis
September 11th, 2010 – January 16th, 2011
At the Düsseldorf Quadriennale 2010, the Stiftung Schloss und Park Benrath will be showing works and installations by James Lee Byars within the architecture of the maison de plaisance.
Taking account of National Heritage restrictions, works will be placed beneath the southern terrace, at the pond with the elm-head, in the area around the palace-pond and the hunt clearing en étoile as well as in the domed hall, the garden-rooms and the staircase.
In constructing the maison de plaisance at Benrath, Nicolas de Pigage was guided by a fascination for perfect geometric and stereometric figures which since antiquity have been used to represent perfection, being handed down by architecture theorists such as Vitruv, Alberti, Palladio and Blondel.
Imaginary construction lines describe a ground-plan of circles, rectangles and triangles on whose borders buildings, avenues, channels and green garden-rooms condense into an ideal space of imagination for perfection.
In a playful interchange between interior and exterior architecture following the strict choreography of ideal axes, the elaborate composition of the gardens at Benrath Palace and Park appears as a sublime reference-point for beauty.
An ideal location to exhibit works by James Lee Byars, to stage them.
The works of the representer of ideas, Byars, will open up an interplay of moves which shows the architect's ideas at the end of the baroque period, and those of the conceptual artist beyond time in a rivalrous dialogue dedicated especially to staging beauty and perfection.
Byars always spoke of the symptoms of the perfect which he brings to light in his works representing ideas. A sublime placing in designed surroundings and atmosphere puts a focus on their staged appearance.
The viewer will be transported into an atmosphere opening up the possibility within the staged space of witnessing the shining presence of the idea of perfection.
Turning upon the axes of the perfect, the dialogue between the artist, James Lee Byars, and the architect, Nicolas de Pigage, at Benrath Palace and Park will rouse attention.
Curators of the exhibition:
Gabriele Uerscheln
Heinrich Heil
