On 12 November the Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla and Léon in Spain (MUSAC) is presenting a daylong symposium on Guy de Cointet, with speakers Frédérique Bergholtz, Marie de Brugerolle, Dora García, and Agustín Pérez Rubio and screenings of the films Who’s that Guy? Tell Me More about Guy de Cointet (2011, directed by Marie de Brugerolle) and Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Work of Eric Orr (2011, directed by Elizabeth Orr).

The symposium is organised on the occasion of the exhibition I WAS A MALE YVONNE DE CARLO – Critical art can be sophisticated, even entertaining, curated by Marie de Brugerolle and Dora García. A performance of Five Sisters is presented at MUSAC in the evening of the 12th. For more information, visit the MUSAC website.

Programme symposium:

11:00 hrs: Welcome by Agustín Pérez Rubio (Director of MUSAC), Dora García and Marie de Brugerolle (curators of the symposium and the exhibition)

11:15 hrs: Lecture on Guy de Cointet by Marie de Brugerolle, a leading specialist of his work

12:30 hrs: Film screening of Who’s that Guy? Tell Me More about Guy de Cointet (directed by Marie de Brugerolle, Produced by Entre2prises. 2011, 90 minutes, English spoken)

16:30 hrs: Round table discussion with Marie de Brugerolle, Dora García and Frédérique Bergholtz (director of If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution), moderated by Agustín Pérez Rubio

18.30h hrs: Film screening of Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Work of Eric Orr (directed by Elizabeth Orr. 2011, 39 minutes, original version, no subtitles).

21:00 hrs: Performance of Five Sisters of Guy de Cointet, in a new production in collaboration with If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution.

The exhibition I WAS A MALE YVONNE DE CARLO – Critical art can be sophisticated, even entertaining is curated by artists, and therefore emerges more from a question of attitude than a professional curatorial stance. It is an exhibition born of the desire to understand and pay homage to the work of artists Guy de Cointet and Jack Smith. No matter the distance separating the work of these two artists, both share common traits: elegance, humour, bravura, defiance, and a very delicate sense of camp – actually the term was adopted by Susan Sontag to speak about Smith’s work. But most specifically, they share what the title of the exhibition describes: the capacity to critique (critique the cultural establishment, critique the status quo, critique the collective imagination) with style: humour, comedy, intelligence.

The exhibition is on show at MUSAC from 25 June, 2011 – 8 January, 2012 and is curated by Marie de Brugerolle & Dora García and coordinated by Carlos Ordás.

With artists Ignasi Aballí (Barcelona, Spain, 1958), John Baldessari (National City, U.S.A, 1931), Guy Ben-Ner (Israel, 1969), Julien Bismuth (Paris, France, 1973) + Jean-Pascal Flavien (Le Mans, France, 1973), Stanley Brouwn (Surinam, 1935), Guy de Cointet (Paris, France, 1935 – 1983), Kirsten Mosher (U.S.A, 1963), Itziar Okariz (San Sebastián, Spain, 1965), Allen Ruppersberg (Cleveland, U.S.A, 1944), Jack Smith (U.S.A., 1932-1989).