How art gives shape to cultural change

                    Glenn Ligon

1)

These two works of art appear in the beginning of the speech, after the portraits of Jay Jay and Basquiat. On the photograph, we can see the face of a man seen from behind (the portrait of the speech is split in two) and an opened book with some figures. These works of art interest me because they are answering the question of identity : Are we able to know somebody without a face, and could we know more about him thanks to his face? Moreover the double exposure of the figure and the writing which begins with "I am an invisible man" is clearly questionning what the identity and the relation to oneself are.

2)

a) Thanks to Thelma Golden, the images work for they bring a deep reflexion. Actually when she tells the anecdote of a woman who made mistakes about the artist's "race", she points out the fact that images can change and shake our way to think the society.

b) One of the questions she raises concerning the role of the museum in the society is : Can the museum be a catalyst in a community? Actually the museum gathers together many artists who are asking some questions in their art to re-think the society. Moreover she wonders if the museum could be the place to discuss of some cultural questions like these like : What does that mean to be an African American today?

3)

Thelma Golden thinks the artists as "real catalysts". First of all what does she mean by "catalyst"? In my point if view she considers the artists as catalysts because they are able to sum up all social, cultural questions through their sensibilty and their creativity in their works of art. In that way they can open minds to other and uncommon horizons. When she uses this terme "catalyst", I have the image of a sponge which is absorbing many emotional and considered things to transform all this matter thanks to art. I agree with her : I think many of all artists create in response to something of their social, cultural life and in that way their catalysing some questions about it.

Drawing upon humor for a change

1)

The main idea of Donnelly is that only women can change the society, because they are the foundation of this world. The deep changement can only be realized by women.

2)

If we consider women as the foundations of this world I agree with her : in this perspective the change has to be started from the roots to expand oneself. But I don't think women are the only foundations of society : everybody has the abilities to change something at one's scale.

3)
I agree with Donnelly when she says that the sense of humor changes according to one's culture. Thanks to her, humor is based on the subversion of our social traditions. So each humorist uses of its own culture to denounce implictly its society.

Aimée Mullins

This American woman has her legs amputated at the age of one because of a genetic disease. She grown with these two missing legs and she got used to it with artificial ones. Despite of her disability, she practised athletism at high level at school and even competed in the Paralympics in 1996 where she was classed 7th in her category. Nowadays she keeps on practising athletics. She also is a fashion model : she modelled for Alexander MacQueen in England in 1999 with wood prothesis, carved by hand.

She appeared in 2002 in an experimental film created by Matthew Barney, "Cremaster 3" in which she was a cheetah woman.

Of course I am impressed by her, and I really like the other kind of beauty she is exploring thanks to this body. She seems to have accepted it and moreover she "explores" her abnormal body with a creative and artistic mind. In my point of view she is fully living through her body as she could have rejected it for it was not normal.

A place to discover in Grenoble (if it's not already done)

If you want to have a drink and have a great moment of conviviality, I advice you the Berthom's bar. First of all, it is specialized in biers : biers they are suggesting are very various. You can savor blond, brown or white bier and each one has its particular flavors (fruits, stronger taste, spicies ...) specific to some countries like Belgium, Switzerland, France, ... . Moreover the atmosphere is unique : the place looks like an inn for the decoration melts stones, old wood and many bibelots from an other age. You just have to call the innkeeper!

Concerning the history of this bar, or rather these bars (there are now 9 Berthom's bars in France), everything began from original ideas of Berthom brothers : they wanted to realize an original concept around their passion of bier. Thanks to the success of their first bar, the brothers have been able to develop a "network" in France.

Practical information :

The Berthom's bar of Grenoble is located in the city center, not far from "Ancien Evêché" museum. It's precisely located at 1, Rue Hugues. It's opened from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. . Concerning drink's cost, it's quiet expensive : it appoximatively goes from 3 to 6 or 7 euros for a drink following the quality and volume of bier. It's more a bier to savor slowly, even if spicy peanuts they offered lead to consumption...

Presenting oneself

I'm Laurie and I'm 22 years old. I'm stydying modern litteratures at the university of Grenoble. I took a quiet long time to know what I really wanted to study. Actually after my baccalaureate, I had to choose a way concerning my future. My real project was to become a photographer but of course my parents were not confident in this choice... So I chose some subjects I was interested in (political sciences), but I had no perspective in this way. That's why I decided to work (I worked for 3 years in a cinema). This break has confirmed my first envy to study photography. With the desire to make concrete this project,  I resumed my studies last year at the university of Lyon in a double subject : Arts of spectacle (specialized in photography) and modern Litteratures. And I became aware of an egal interest in the both subjects. For this second year, I decided to concentrate on Litteratures and to keep studying photograpy and cinema as options. Here is my studying "journey" which I hope will bring more and more satisfaction!

Concerning my way of life, I'm quiet calm, I love reading and have a drink with friends. I would really like to travel in Asia. Actually I hope I will be able to take an other break in my studies to realize this travelling project, but many questions have to be resolved first concerning the budget, the period of time, ... .
I also like cooking more salty meals than sweety ones. I draw some inspiration from many world cooking (japanese, italian, ... foods) and I realize my meal... which is not always a success!
To conclude this quick presentation, I can say I'm not very used to blog but it's a quiet good experience of a personal space to share with others. It was not so easy to speak about oneself, but it was with great pleasure!!!

Have good holydays... on the snow with some luck! See you soon.

Laurie