KARSTEN FÖDINGER, Cantilever. Exhibition view (entrance)
Courtesy of the artist, RaebervonStenglin, Zurich and Palais de Tokyo, Paris

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KARSTEN FÖDINGER, Cantilever. Exhibition view
Courtesy of the artist, RaebervonStenglin, Zurich and Palais de Tokyo, Paris

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KARSTEN FÖDINGER, Cantilever. Exhibition view
photo © WFW

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KARSTEN FÖDINGER, Cantilever. Exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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AMOS GITAÏ, Traces, exhibition view
photo © WFW

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Free Zone (excerpt) by AMOS GITAI. 2005, with NATHALIE PORTMAN

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In a Palais de Tokyo under reconstruction (the museum is undergoing in 2011 a partial remodeling of its exhibition spaces), I had the chance to discover two artists, KARSTEN FÖDINGER and AMOS GITAI, who get involved in this built environment.

German artist KARSTEN FÖDINGER has created a monumental in situ installation/construction called Cantilever which questions the entire structure of a building and disturbs our perceptions by creating a moment of instability to stability where the structure is at the limits of physical laws. He installs a concrete slab on a system of pillboxes, normally used for scaffolding. The concrete is suspended in the air defying gravity. Additionally he uses materials found on construction sites – concrete, plaster, raw wood, scaffolding – and offers to the viewer a space between construction and deconstruction. This work makes complete sense in context of center art restructuring.

In the basement of the museum, trainee architect turned soldier turned filmmaker AMOS GITAI has presented a vast installation, an immersive visual and sonar experience, by using images taken from a dozen of his films. If you are not familiar with GITAI‘s works, his films are dominated by questions of identity and exile as well as memory and history and encourage the public to consider the past and present, the necessity of the transmission of memory, and the role of art. His films are projected in an unfussy, unpolished manner straight onto uneven concrete and brickwork, giving them even more of a sense of urgency and essentialness. The “chantier,” as this space is called, is pretty fitting as a location for GITAI’s installation.

The Palais de Tokyo will reopen in its entirety in spring 2012. However during the renovation, the exhibitions continue, more info via http://www.palaisdetokyo.com