JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL
THE HIGHEST OF ALL THE ART IS INSURRECTION
curated by Bernhard Serexhe
ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie
Lorenzstraße 19 - Karlsruhe
July 26−November 9, 2014
With his first exhibition in 1955 and his first Happening dating back to 1960, Jean-Jacques Lebel went on to establish his reputation as an international artist by contributing to a far-reaching dynamization of the most vital and refreshing counter-movement of our time—the artistic “Action.”
With his Festival de La libre Expression (from 1964 to 1968), and his Festival International Polyphonix (from 1979 on), in which thousands of artists, poets, philosophers, film-makers and musicians from all artistic directions participated, Lebel was an initiator of numerous artistic and political events. A Surrealist and personal friend of André Breton, he later translated and published the poets of the Beat Generation, such as Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs, McClure et al., with whom he was intimately connected. As a friend of Marcel Duchamp, Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Lebel was an untiring fighter for the liberal ethics and social-subversive mission of all artists worthy of the title.
Curated by Bernhard Serexhe, the retrospective—encompassing around 2,000 square meters of exhibition space—brings together an outstanding selection of Jean-Jacques Lebel’s paintings, drawings and films alongside a complex of eight installations never before exhibited in this particular constellation.
THE HIGHEST OF ALL THE ART IS INSURRECTION
curated by Bernhard Serexhe
ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie
Lorenzstraße 19 - Karlsruhe
July 26−November 9, 2014
With his first exhibition in 1955 and his first Happening dating back to 1960, Jean-Jacques Lebel went on to establish his reputation as an international artist by contributing to a far-reaching dynamization of the most vital and refreshing counter-movement of our time—the artistic “Action.”
With his Festival de La libre Expression (from 1964 to 1968), and his Festival International Polyphonix (from 1979 on), in which thousands of artists, poets, philosophers, film-makers and musicians from all artistic directions participated, Lebel was an initiator of numerous artistic and political events. A Surrealist and personal friend of André Breton, he later translated and published the poets of the Beat Generation, such as Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs, McClure et al., with whom he was intimately connected. As a friend of Marcel Duchamp, Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Lebel was an untiring fighter for the liberal ethics and social-subversive mission of all artists worthy of the title.
Curated by Bernhard Serexhe, the retrospective—encompassing around 2,000 square meters of exhibition space—brings together an outstanding selection of Jean-Jacques Lebel’s paintings, drawings and films alongside a complex of eight installations never before exhibited in this particular constellation.
