euro|topics - Laurent Wolf

21/11/2008

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Wolf, Laurent

5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Le Temps - Switzerland | 26/06/2007

Anselm Kiefer, world-crusher

For the launch of 'Monumenta', a new annual contemporary art attraction in Paris, the 'Grand Palais' museum invited Anselm Kiefer to display his work. Art critic Laurent Wolf analyses the German artist's exhibit. "He grew up in a Germany that didn't want to know. A Germany of obliterated memory, in which it took years to start to remember. ... Anselm Kiefer doesn't disown German culture. He dives right into it to the point where he is sometimes unjustly accused of being complacent with it. Not surprising, then, that his artist's world is populated by ruins. ... [He] paints immense canvases where one recognises the worked soil, the broken stone, the results of arduous and stubborn work. Images? Not exactly. Because his work on canvas is done with soil and herbs cultivated in the fields. Anselm Kiefer is a world-crusher. We could say that he built an aesthetic of destruction if there wasn't, under the detritus, the seed of a world yet to be born."

Le Temps - Switzerland | 18/06/2007

'Art Basel' has pointed the way to artistic consensus

Laurent Wolf takes stock of the 38th 'Art Basel', art fair in Switzerland, that ended on June 17th. "Never before, in twenty years, has been so much painting. Never before have relations between painting and other modes of expression appeared so obvious and peaceful. The same themes are explored, the same leitmotifs: urban expansion, violence in the suburbs, the natural environment and its destruction, desire, the body. ... If it were becoming once again possible to place the theme or the work before experimentation, either because artists master new techniques well or because these new techniques have simplified their use. Added to this pacification of relations between modes of expression is a political and ideological turn. ... It seems that in art, like elsewhere, it is no longer a question of changing the world, but of looking at it as it stands and interpreting it, sometimes with some revolt, more often with panic and occasionally even with a touch of melancholy. Art has not become completely consensual, but has ceased to be aggressive."

Le Temps - Switzerland | 28/09/2006

Indignation over the cancellation of "Idomeneo" in Berlin

The editorialist Laurent Wolf chooses to draw a parallel between the "Idomeneo" scandal and the experience of the eminent Islam specialist Bassam Tibi, born in Damas and of German nationality. Judging his integration on European turf impossible, he chose to go and teach in The United States. "Self-censorship of a work of art and the disgust that lead Bassam Tibi to leave have something in common. On one hand fear and anticipation of a possible reaction, the legitimacy of which is no longer even up for discussion, but which is imposed by force of it's capacity to harm- One simply does not criticise a religion, least of all this one, right? On the other hand, the impossibility of being seen and treated with respect, that is to say, for what you are. Because Bassam Tibi and most Muslims say nothing and do nothing to bring about the suspicion that that is directed towards them.'

Le Temps - Switzerland | 03/02/2006

Marc-Olivier Wahler to take helm of the Palais de Tokyo

The Swiss Marc-Olivier Wahler, who today [Friday, February 3] officially takes command of the Palais de Tokyo, the largest French centre of contemporary art, talks in an interview about France's alleged artistic decline. "It is the French who are saying this. If there is a problem at all, it lies with the artistic scene and the way the arts system works in France. Many French artists do remarkable work. We are on the right track. Some people are willing to give up a few benefits. They are inclined to go abroad and confront the international scene. And, another sure sign - more and more of them speak English."

Le Temps - Switzerland | 24/01/2006

Fact and fiction in 'Munich'

"Does entertainment come before the obligation to inform?" asks the journalist Laurent Wolf in a commentary that coincides with the release of the Steven Spielberg film 'Munich', based on the story of a bloody hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games. "Up to what point are we allowed to interpret events? ... For Spielberg, the process of relating a real event in fictional form is also a way of telling the truth since it is impossible to imagine the world without adopting a point of view... There is nothing disputable in the licence taken by the creator of 'Munich', because he is not out to find the absolute objective truth. On the other hand, a journalist who gives free rein to fiction in his work assumes that getting the message across comes before having accurate content. It disrupts our sense of reality. It turns us into spectators who are entertained by the news when this news takes the same liberties as art."

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