Toulouse: Behind the scenes of the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition
In the midst of preparations for the Niki de Saint Phalle exhibition, the Toulouse Abattoirs Museum opens the backstage of this highly anticipated event, starting this Friday, October 7.
A sculpture of the famous “nanas” by Niki de Saint-Phalle (1930-2002), very colorful dancers with rounded shapes, has appeared on the forecourt of the Abattoirs. Sign that the big day is approaching. This retrospective bringing together some 200 works (sculptures, paintings, furniture, but also jewelry, scarves, perfume, etc.) by the Franco-American artist opens its doors to the public on Friday. While everything is not completely set up, we can already see that this colorful, original, general public exhibition, dedicated to a very big name in Art, will be a landmark at Les Abattoirs.
Puffy chicks and Loch Ness monster
From the outset, we plunge into the phantasmagorical universe of Niki de Saint Phalle, welcomed by a string of buoys in the shape of girls in bathing suits, added to each other from floor to ceiling. The artist, who diversified his production a lot, had distributed these gadgets in the sixty years. The reissues, sold for €20 at the museum shop, were to be successful. The scenographer Pascal Rodriguez assembled these inflated dolls to make a curtain, behind which sits the most imposing piece of the exhibition: the Loch Ness monster. The spooky animal, covered with scales of ceramics and mirrors, weighs more than two tons and has an impressive wingspan, which necessarily takes quite a bit of handling.
“This sculpture, like the totems, was loaned to us by MAMAC, the Nice Museum of Contemporary Art, which has a Niki de Saint Phalle donation,” says the curator of the Abattoirs, Annabelle Ténèze. “It is a fountain made for the exterior. This piece, restored for the exhibition, arrived in a special truck. We had to set up a bridge for susceptibility and bring it in through a door reserved for large formats”.
A committed artist
The Niki de Saint Phalle Foundation is the exhibition’s other major partner. Led by the artist’s granddaughter, Bloum Cardenas, who will be present at the opening on Thursday evening, this institution is “very often asked for loans”, indicates Lucia Pesapane, art historian commissioned by Toulouse to assist Annabelle Ténèze . “We cannot respond to all requests, because Niki de Saint Phalle is very much in tune with current issues. The retrospective at Les Abattoirs is of great interest to us. This is the first major exhibition dedicated to the production of the 1980s and 1990s, a period very representative of Niki de Saint Phalle’s commitment to feminism, the cause of AIDS, the defense of Nature and animals”.
The foundation notably lent a whole bestiary gathered in the first room, on the right, with, in the center, two entwined snakes, emblematic motif of the artist. Another room is dedicated to his famous Tarot Garden, in Tuscany. His life’s work. A park of immense sculptures inspired by the 22 mysteries of the divinatory game, in the center designed the artist built the Empress, a house-sculpture covered with ceramics in which she lived for 20 years. We will tread on a carpet specially woven in Toulouse, reproducing the course of the park, while the buildings, each crazier than the other, are presented in reduced sizes.
Like in his house
The exhibition occupies the entire ground floor and basement of the museum. The scenographer had partitions, passages and arches installed to make the spaces more intimate. The walls are painted in bright colors, like the very recognizable style of Niki de Saint Phalle. The artist, who died just twenty years ago, is present everywhere, through large portraits, film extracts, as if she were guiding her visitors herself.
From Friday October 7 to March 5, Slaughterhouse Museum, 76 allées Charles de Fitte. Prices 5 and 8€. Free entry on the first Sunday of the month.