3rd edition of the exhibition Les Extatiques, from June 26th to October 4th

In a complicated cultural and event-driven context, the Hauts-de-Seine department, Paris La Défense and La Seine Musicale are pleased to announce the continuation of the open-air exhibition of contemporary art works, a strong sign of support for artistic creation!

The great novelty of this edition of Extatiques: the exhibition will be held on the esplanade of La Défense, but also in the gardens of La Seine Musicale, creating a new dialogue with the environment. The works, located outdoors, will be accessible to all, while allowing to respect the health instructions, especially social distancing.

Nothing to see
The 2020 edition will undoubtedly sharpen your sense of perception, as Fabrice Bousteau, curator of the exhibition, suggests:

"In 2014, Marina Abramovic affirmed that "art is a question of energy and energy is invisible"! It is this energy that is at the heart of this edition subtitled "Nothing to See" in the sense that the works presented are either improbable because they defy the senses, gravity, logic or codes of power - like the Concorde obelisk created by Ívan Argotte especially for the exhibition - or conceal the visible hidden like the Zig Zag labyrinth by Hector Zamorra which plays with shadows, the sun and the architecture of La Défense. Eclectic, joyful, colourful, this new edition invites visitors to stroll, to take a surprising walk through the forms of the works and their hidden meaning that gradually reveals itself on contact with them*".

Intriguing, don't you think?

Carlos Cruz-Diez, born in 1923 in Caracas, and died in July 2019 in Paris. The artist deployed a singular conception of abstraction, initiated in 1969 when he elaborated his first "Project for a subtractive colour environment". *Environnement de Transchromies** is a circular, participative and shimmering structure, at the heart of which the spectator is invited to rediscover his natural or urban environment. Designed to be built in situ and outside the walls, the work takes into account the external reality and transforms it by subtracting colour thanks to the transparent slats that blend together.

Matteo Nasini, Italian artist who works with sound, performance, installation and sculpture. For La Seine Musicale, he proposes a new sound sculpture: a mechanical percussion organ; entitled During Day, which will invite visitors to experience abstraction thanks to the sculpture's sound timbre, very close to that of church bells, which calls for reflection and contemplation.

Julie C. Fortier, a Quebec artist who, since 2012, has been developing an experimental practice based on the mnemonic and emotional qualities of odours and aromas to create new representations. For Les Extatiques, the artist proposes an olfactory garden in the heart of the Seine Musicale, offering fragrant accords through coloured porcelain and glass capsules that play on both figurative and abstract references.

Elsa Sahal, a graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, has developed a practice centred around ceramics. For Les Extatiques, the artist reveals an invisible and unsuspected world on the roof of La Seine Musicale. Drawing her inspiration from the aquatic world, she creates a sort of living meander, as if on this "artificial hill" appeared the traces of a fossilized past.

Fabrice Hyber, whose work is protean, at the frontiers of drawing, photography, video, sculpture, painting, installation and performance. For this 3rd edition, he installs his fountain sculptures: Hommes de Bessines in the Takis basin in Paris La Défense, and a Jardin extatique in La Seine Musicale. This installation is conceived as a living organism, inviting the spectator to experiment, to look, to feel, to touch, to take a shower...

Ivan Argote
A little humility and a lot of humor: this is what characterizes his art. As a young Colombian trained first in graphic design, he is now multiplying absurd performances, with the city as a theater of operations. He takes advantage of the slightest flaw in our daily lives to try to make sense and seeks to gently derail systems and routines. At Paris La Défense, the artist will present his project Strenghlessness in the historical axis of Paris.