27 February – 23 May 2010
The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Admission Free
With the support of Culturesfrance and the French Ministry of culture and communication and the French Institute in the United Kingdom

The latest commission for The Curve is by French contemporary artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot and takes the form of a walk-through aviary inhabited by 40 zebra finches. For his first UK solo exhibition Boursier-Mougenot constructed a
landscape for the birds using bass guitars and Gibson Les Paul electric guitars as
perches, and cymbals as feeders containing water and seeds. As the birds go about
their routine activities, settling on the instruments, plucking strings and pecking cymbals they create a chance composition. The sounds are amplified to resonate throughout the gallery. Also included in the installation is a series of videos that featuring close-ups of hands playing electric guitars. Rather than hearing the sound of the guitars playing we hear a humming drone produced by the amplification of the video signal.

Boursier-Mougenot trained as a musician and started his career as the composer of
the Pascal Rambert Theatre Company, Paris where he worked from 1985 to1994.

From the early 90s he began makinginstallations for galleries. Working in a variety of
media, including sculpture, video and sound he creates installations which bring
together the audible and the visual. He uses everyday objects and seemingly
unremarkable situations to produce random and captivating soundscapes.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot was born in Nice in 1961. He lives and works in Sète,
France. He is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Golden David Award for
contemporary art. Recent exhibitions include the 3rd Moscow Biennale of
Contemporary Art, 2009 and solo shows at Pinacoteca, São Paulo, 2009 and Musée
National Marc Chagall, Nice, 2009. His work is in major public and private collections
around the world, including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Old and
New Art, Hobart, Tasmania; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; San Diego Museum of
Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California and Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris.

The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Opening times: Daily 11am – 8pm and every Thursday LATE until 10pm
Public information: 0845 120 7550
www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery
Admission free

TALKS AND EVENTS
Rhythms of Life
7pm/ 24 March 2010
Fountain Room, Level G
Composer and BBC broadcaster Robert Worby and musician, writer and sound curator
David Toop explore the sound worlds of Céleste Bousier-Mougenot.
Free

CURVE ART
The Curve is the Barbican’s free exhibition space that wraps around the back of the Concert Hall. Launched in May 2006, Curve Art is a series of new commissions inviting contemporary artists to respond to the distinctive architecture of the space. International artists who have previously made new commissions for The Curve are Tomas Saraceno (Argentina); Richard Wilson (Britain); Jeppe Hein (Denmark); Marjetica Potrč (Slovenia); Shirana Shahbazi (Switzerland/Iran); Hans Schabus (Austria); Huang Yong Ping (China); Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico-Canada); Peter Coffin (America); Clemens von Wedemeyer (Germany) and most recently Robert Kusmirowski (Poland).