Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble: Multiples and Unique Works in Paris

The exhibition "Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble" took place across multiple venues in Paris from June 24 to August 1, 2009. Organized by Label Hypothèse, a collective of artists, critics, and curators, it featured around forty artists exploring the different modes of existence of artworks—unique pieces, editions, and multiples. Venues included La Générale en Manufacture and four galleries: Bertrand Grimont, Marion Meyer, Nuke, and Odile Ouizeman. The show brought together younger artists and their elders, such as François Morellet, Claude Rutault (who repainted a canvas by John Cornu for the occasion), Michel Verjux, and through multiples, Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Yona Friedman, and Rodney Graham. A work by Lawrence Weiner appeared simultaneously as an in situ piece on a gallery window and as a digital program on a monitor elsewhere. The exhibition aimed to reaffirm the artistic quality of multiples, often considered secondary, and highlighted alternative distribution circuits. It also addressed spatial relationships, with works like Aï Kitahara's motorized handle transforming a wall into a machine room, and John Cornu's tubular modules adapting to gallery architecture. Guillaume Constantin's sculpture replicated Claude Lévêque's neon "Plus de lumière" in cardboard and plexiglass, engaging with simulacra. The project subtly proposed alternatives to the current art world functioning, suggesting a kind of ecology.