Three Exhibitions Explore Artistic Transmission Across Time

Three exhibitions—Mélancolie, génie et folie en Occident at the Grand Palais, Expériences de la durée at the Biennale de Lyon, and Dada at the Centre Pompidou—demonstrate curators' efforts to connect past and present artistic forms. Curators Jean Clair, Nicolas Bourriaud, Jérôme Sans, and Laurent Lebon each use historical models to illuminate contemporary situations: Clair focuses on the creative individual, Bourriaud and Sans on art's societal relation and emerging identities, and Lebon on subversive spirit. Their discourses share a view of art's evolution through continuity and rupture, emphasizing heritage as filiation (from father to son, master to disciple, generation to generation). However, Christophe Kihm argues that filiation alone cannot explain today's diverse and fragmented artistic practices; it serves more as a selection and legitimization tool than a production rule. Contemporary art inherits not only art history but also globalization of aesthetic norms, professionalization of amateur practices (pop music, diaries), and democratization of production tools (DV cameras, editing software, home studios).