Every year the world finest contemporary art scene gather up in some place around the world to discuss about big topics and keep good knowledge of projects currently led by each others. This year, they all meet in the western fjord of Iceland. My colleague, the cultural attaché, foresaw the great opportunity to make a good advertise of the festival we organizing next year. He managed to build up a reception / dinner in Reykjavik before they flew to the countryside. Hence, I had the chance to meet all those interesting people. I would have not write this if there was anything funny, right. Well, there is anything funny at all. Very seriously, my big problem is that I do not understand modern art at all. But when I say not at all I’m far from the real truth. Those kinds of art and design stuff are absolutely and amazingly ununderstandable to my brain system. So, in this reception I was sort of challenged. How will I manage to talk to someone supposedly brilliant, if I consider is work as non sense ? You tell me Before going there, I seeked for some historical aspect and found something very famous, at least for anyone a little bit familiar with art history, the beginning of the contemporary art: Marcel Duchamp 
A playful man, Duchamp prodded thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much with words, but with actions such as dubbing a urinal art and naming it Fountain. He produced relatively few artworks, as he quickly moved through the avant-garde rhythms of his time. In others words, the dude managed to enter a fountain, where men piss to it, in an art musuem prooving the art aspect of this item. (Brilliant) Things started really well… After my brief search I knew that I’ll have diffulties exchanging anythings with those artists. However, my ignorance and naivity was probably refreshing for people used to chat in such reception with sponsors and/or fans. I talked a lot with Jacque Fresco, an 90 years old man believing of the perfect society governed by high technologies machines. It was funny explainning to this multi-rewarded engineer, designer and film director how I don’t believe a minute that human being could ever be 100% self-dependant of machines (his deepest thought). Of course, I played it gently and argued with him by asking questions that a naiv pupil could have asked. Later on, I sat for dinner with Koo Jeong-a, an korean artist that lived in Paris New-York and now Berlin. It was nice talking to her. I managed quite well to avoid the art subject to keep the magic of not knowing how deep I’m ignorant. To conlude, that was a nice experience but unfortunatly I’m still not into contanporary art ;) Here are some links to the works of the following people present at the reception. Björk, Matthew Barney, Phillipe Parreno, Anna Lena Vaney, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Koo Jeong-A, Pierre Huyghe, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Ari alexander, Dagur Kari, Gabriella, Fridriksdottir, Pash buzari, Miriam backstrom, Pipilotti Rist, Thomas Demand, Christy Lange, Chris Niemeyer, Jacque Fresco, Roxanne Meadows and Klara Stephensen.
To Tanja: Please check your email ;)