Olivier Nottellet's 'Bivouac et autre salle de sport' at Frac Basse-Normandie

Olivier Nottellet's exhibition 'Bivouac et autre salle de sport' at Frac Basse-Normandie in Caen, France, from October 4 to November 16, 2008, explores themes of war and competition (the Greek agon). The two rooms evoke these forces: the ground floor features a bivouac scene with a resin cast of a campfire surrounded by empty office chairs, suggesting absence and desertion. One chair is strapped with a glass plate to an I-beam. A painted black panel with para-architectural elements interrupts a black band that may represent time. Upstairs, 'L'Instrument démesuré' presents a half-dumbbell against a mirror, creating a complete image that comments on the vanity of agonistic situations. Murals like 'Sciatique' use ambiguous forms that could be a spine, a staircase, or a pile of books. Nottellet, who studied history, engages with the discipline's self-doubt. The exhibition references Walter Benjamin's 'On the Concept of History' (1940) on the barbarism of cultural heritage.