The Cynics Republic

The exhibition ‘The Cynics Republic’ offers a counter-narrative of the history of performance. It looks at the emergence of ‘performative practice’ from Antiquity onwards and seeks to recover the relevance of the values of ancient cynicism – truth, self-sufficiency, endurance, sobriety and free sexuality – in the context of today’s social and ecological challenges. ‘The Cynics Republic’ offers visitors the chance to experience an exhibition constructed as a score and that will be renewed on a daily basis over the course of three weeks thanks to the use of dematerialized resources (scores, protocols, films and sound pieces) from the national collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) and the Kontakt collection in Vienna. ‘The Cynics Republic’ proposes to approach the resources of these collections from the perspective of a repertoire of immemorial gestures. Works will be activated on a daily basis by artists and performers, with the selection updated according to a weekly theme: dishonour (a critical alternative to competitiveness), shamelessness (an anticipation of a state of nature) and finally destitution (an ethic of animality).

PERFORMANCES/PROTOCOLS:
Milan Adamčiak, Pierre Bal-Blanc, Béatrice Balcou, Eva Barto, Sammy Baloji, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Eva Barto,Victor Burgin, Nina Canal, Aurélien Catin, Josef Dabernig, L’Ecole des Actes, Stano Filko - White Space, Marcus Geiger, Delia Gonzalez, Delia Gonzalez, Wolfgang Gonzalez, Daniel Grúň, Nilbar Güreş, Trajal Harrell, IKHÉA©SERVICES, Jeff Wall Production, Florence Jung, Lenio Kaklea, Július Koller, Katalin Ladik, Nadia Lichtig, Rick Lowe, Maria Papadimitriou, Paul Maheke, Svetlana Maraš, Vlado Martek, Dominique Mathieu, Ghislain Mollet-Viéville, Efthimios Moschopoulos, OHO David Nez, Manuel Pelmuş, Roman Ondak, Pope.L, Jimmy Robert, Matthieu Saladin, Georgia Sagri, Luka Savić, Shikeith, Cally Spooner, Mladen Stilinović, Sergei Tcherepnin (Pamelia Stickney - Elisabeth Flunger - Philipp Quehenberger - Artjom Astrov - Michaela Kisling), La Tierce (Sonia Garcia - Séverine Lefèvre - Charles Pietri), Raš a Todosijević , Slaven Tolj, Loreto Martínez Troncoso, ŠtěpánTuček, les gens d’Uterpan, Jiří Valoch, VIER5, Lois Weinberger, Franz West, Mariana Xenofontos.

FILMS:
Boris Achour, Béatrice Balcou, Geta Brătescu, BazileBustamante, Cezary Bodzianowski, Stuart Brisley, Attila Czernik, Josef Dabernig, Anna Daučíková, Brice Dellsperger, Goran Đorđević , Josef Dabernig, Robert Filliou, Constantin Flondor, Petar Fradelić, Friedl vom Gröller, Markus Heltschl, Jeff Wall Production, Adrian Paci, Mihovil Pansini, Karol Radziszewski, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Tomislav Gotovac, Ion Grigorescu, Igor Grubić, Gržinić/Šmid, Tibor Hajas, Sanja Iveković, Anna Jermolaewa, Teresa Margolles, Marianne Marić, Jean-Charles Massera, Dóra Maurer, Mara Mattuschka, Dalibor Martinis, Miodrag Miloševič, Rosalind Nashashibi, Paul Neagu, Rainer Oldendorf, Roman Ondak, Friederike Pezold, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Hans (Ashley) Scheirl, Hans Scheugl, Albert Serra, Roman Stańczak, Mladen Stilinović, Mark Ther, Florin Tudor et Mona Vătămanu, les gens d’Uterpan, Marie Voignier, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Lois Weinberger, Želimir Žilnik, Artur Żmijewski.