Playback is a project (an exhibition, a publication*, some parallel events**) opening mid October 2007 at theARC/Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. It focuses on incursions of visual artists in the realm of music : it will gather both music videos directed by visual artists and produced for a label, as well as videos inspired by/anchored in the music video format : an underknown (even though very common) practice among the artists.

Playback combines therefore approximatively 50 videos by emerging and established artists realized between the beginning of the 1980’s and today.

A music video is by definition a short piece which duration and visual rhythm are synchronized and determined by a song music (being either pre-existing or conceived in parallel), beyond the model of an original movie soundtrack.

The commercial music video -- often seen as a manipulative (lip-synch) or matchist and imperialist power remains therefore often disregarded and dismissed, despite an often experimental form and a content questioning (even indirectly) traditional social, racial, sexual identities and representations.

Contradictory in a sense with the so called ‘intemporality’ of art, founded on its ability to support punctual and intensive repetition, music video embodies an illicit and attractive format towards artists.

In itself a global art work and a daily consumption object, music videos invite to rethink the exhibition format and to invent a proper presentation display underscoring an inherent televisual identity. Designed by a music video ‘set designer’, the specific scenography will create 4 idiomatic sets (a tv room, a karaoke cabin, a tv shop, a gym) hosting different thematic selections: a way to avoid pseudo neutral TV lounge of any regular museum video shows.

Artists’ list:

Doug Aitken, Laurie Anderson, Cory Arcangel, assume vivid astro focus, Charles Atlas, Alex Bag, Judith Barry, Sadie Benning, Johanna Billing, Michael Bell-Smith, Joseph Beuys, Dara Birnbaum, Black Leotard Front, Rebecca Bournigault, Robert Breer, Olaf Breuning, Buckle Bunnies, Miguel Calderon, Cao Fei, Antoine Catala, Roberto Cuoghi, Brice Dellsperger, Devo, Eric Duyckaerts, Robert Frank, Mario Garcia Torres, Rodney Graham, Daniel Guzman, Camille Henrot, Thomas Hirschhorn, Damien Hirst, Karl Holmqvist, Jonathan Horowitz, i could never be a dancer, Derek Jarman, Susi Jirkuff, Tomoki Kakitani, Richard Kern, The Kingpins, Thomas Lélu, Christelle, Lheureux, Kalup Linzy, Jacques Lizène et Daniel Dutrieux, Lydia Lunch, Las Malas Amistades, Paul McCarthy, Jill Miller, Melvin Moti, Petra Mrzyk & Jean-François Moriceau, Melik Ohanian, Tony Oursler, Paper Rad, Cécile Paris, Martin Parr, Ara Peterson, Maroussia Rebecq et Mathieu Danet, The Residents, Michael Roy, Kati Rule, Joanna Rytel, Wilhelm Sasnal, Susan Smith-Pinelo, Sonic Youth, Georgina Starr, Los Super Elegantes, Jimi Tenor, Wolfgang

Tillmans, Jean-Luc Verna, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Wyldfile, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES...

*The exhibition is accompanied with a publication featuring texts by curator Anne Dressen, artist and art historian Bettina Funcke, dance critic and artistic director Christophe Wavelet, film theorist Nicole Brenez, Label director Jean René Etienne, art critic Benjamin Thorel and a interview of Kim Gordon by music critic Marie Pierre Bonniol.

**As well as a series of peripheral events (special screenings, tv channel and/or internet broadcasting, live performances) on and off site…

http://www.myspace.com/playback_arc