With works from the IAC collection by Mimosa Echard, Latifa Echakhch, Hans Haacke, Hiwa K, Stéphanie Nava, Pipilotti Rist, Utopia Station, Carey Young, Gillian Wearing, Wang Du and guest artist Anne Le Troter
Designed and produced by Magasin, Centre national d'art contemporain (CNAC)
In partnership with the IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
Designed and produced by Magasin, Centre national d'art contemporain (CNAC)
In partnership with the IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
Magasin CNAC is pleased to announce the group exhibition ‘Good Service, Good Performance’, looking at the collection of the IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes. The works on show, created between 1981 and the present day, have been chosen with a view to rediscovering them and making them resonate with the present day, alongside new works specially produced for the occasion.
Is it still possible to think in terms of utopia in a world profoundly transformed by hyper-connectivity, the crisis of democracy and the new dynamics of surveillance? What does an iconic project like Utopia Station, designed in 2003 in the post-September 11 era, have to say about this? How should we view the work of British artist Gillian Wearing, dancing in a shopping centre in 1994, in the light of Tik-Tok? In 2025, at a time when big tech and the rise of authoritarianism are overturning our interactions and redefining our relationship with information, these works bear witness to issues that, as far back as the 1980s to 2010, raised questions about the fabrication of narratives, the commodification of language, the staging of the self and the possibility of spaces for dissent. Individually or collectively, the works reveal how our bodies, our desires and our existences participate in these dynamics, adapting to or resisting the imposed norms, be they social, media or political.
The film by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist (Entlastungen - Pipilottis Fehler, 1988) opens the exhibition and gives it its title - ‘Good Service, Good Performance’ - a translation of the text chanted on the screen. In this work, the artist transforms sound and visual malfunctions into cracks where the body wavers, revealing the instability of the systems that govern us. These disturbances become a form of liberation, opening up an intimate and poetic relationship with the machine, where letting go defies the logic of conformity and achievement.
In this way, the exhibition explores the relationship between the injunction to perform in contemporary society and the refusal of the body - particularly the female body - to accept this demand for (re)productivity. Good Service, Good Performance’ offers an experience of shouting, lies, absurd recitations, humour and silence... We encounter organic and industrial poultices, sexual organs that have become plants, and sculptures that have to be bitten to be heard. Bodies breathe hard, dance, and come to blows in debates about culture and identity that are resolved in wrestling matches.
‘Good Service, Good Performance’ questions these tensions between discipline and overflow, control and abandonment, truth and staging. In a world shaped by algorithms, where public discourse oscillates between overkill and censorship, the works on show are a reminder of the extent to which art illuminates our present and remains essential for thinking about its transformations.
At the Magasin CNAC in Grenoble and the IAC Villeurbanne, admission to one venue means free admission to the other.
To coincide with this exhibition, the IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes is announcing a unique annual partnership with the Magasin CNAC: for the whole of 2025, every admission to one of the institutions will give free admission to the other.
From February to December 2025, this partnership will offer visitors ten months of uninterrupted exhibitions within a 100km radius of the region.
Is it still possible to think in terms of utopia in a world profoundly transformed by hyper-connectivity, the crisis of democracy and the new dynamics of surveillance? What does an iconic project like Utopia Station, designed in 2003 in the post-September 11 era, have to say about this? How should we view the work of British artist Gillian Wearing, dancing in a shopping centre in 1994, in the light of Tik-Tok? In 2025, at a time when big tech and the rise of authoritarianism are overturning our interactions and redefining our relationship with information, these works bear witness to issues that, as far back as the 1980s to 2010, raised questions about the fabrication of narratives, the commodification of language, the staging of the self and the possibility of spaces for dissent. Individually or collectively, the works reveal how our bodies, our desires and our existences participate in these dynamics, adapting to or resisting the imposed norms, be they social, media or political.
The film by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist (Entlastungen - Pipilottis Fehler, 1988) opens the exhibition and gives it its title - ‘Good Service, Good Performance’ - a translation of the text chanted on the screen. In this work, the artist transforms sound and visual malfunctions into cracks where the body wavers, revealing the instability of the systems that govern us. These disturbances become a form of liberation, opening up an intimate and poetic relationship with the machine, where letting go defies the logic of conformity and achievement.
In this way, the exhibition explores the relationship between the injunction to perform in contemporary society and the refusal of the body - particularly the female body - to accept this demand for (re)productivity. Good Service, Good Performance’ offers an experience of shouting, lies, absurd recitations, humour and silence... We encounter organic and industrial poultices, sexual organs that have become plants, and sculptures that have to be bitten to be heard. Bodies breathe hard, dance, and come to blows in debates about culture and identity that are resolved in wrestling matches.
‘Good Service, Good Performance’ questions these tensions between discipline and overflow, control and abandonment, truth and staging. In a world shaped by algorithms, where public discourse oscillates between overkill and censorship, the works on show are a reminder of the extent to which art illuminates our present and remains essential for thinking about its transformations.
NEW TICKET PARTNERSHIP
From 7 February to 31 December 2025At the Magasin CNAC in Grenoble and the IAC Villeurbanne, admission to one venue means free admission to the other.
To coincide with this exhibition, the IAC - Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes is announcing a unique annual partnership with the Magasin CNAC: for the whole of 2025, every admission to one of the institutions will give free admission to the other.
From February to December 2025, this partnership will offer visitors ten months of uninterrupted exhibitions within a 100km radius of the region.
