Gustav Metzger's 'Decades: 1959-2009' at Rochechouart

The Musée départemental d'art contemporain in Rochechouart presents 'Décennies: 1959-2009', a survey of Gustav Metzger's work from March 1 to June 15, 2010. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery in London, features around twenty key works centered on his theories of 'Auto-Destructive' and 'Auto-Creative' art. Metzger, born in 1926 in Nuremberg to a Polish-Jewish family, fled to England in 1939 after his parents were deported and killed in concentration camps. His practice merges destruction and creation, addressing politics, ecology, science, and economic development. Works include compressed cardboard packaging, acid on nylon, liquid crystal projections, upside-down trees in concrete, historical photographs with reactive materials, a plant asphyxiated by car exhaust in a plexiglass cube, and children jumping on a damaged car shouting 'Kill the cars!'. The exhibition text by Didier Arnaudet emphasizes Metzger's refusal of fashion and recognition, his commitment to resistance against predation and devastation, and his use of contradiction and complexity to provoke thought.