Synopsis
The collected writings of artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz, along with the stories behind them told by Alexis Vaillant.
Marc Camille Chaimowicz (1946–2024) was an acclaimed visual artist known for his performances, installations and curatorial flair. He was also a writer. This volume, the first comprehensive collection of writings by the artist, includes seminal interviews, chitchats, jokes, performance reports, insightful statements and letters in essay form, as well as rare documents, such as early surviving leaflets, typewriter handouts and hard-to-find articles. Spanning 1971–2023, the book unlocks the work of an artist considered to be a refreshing role model for a new generation of culture mavens and style savants. Drawing from literature, modernist architecture, interior design, art theory, glam rock and camp culture, the collection reveals the artist’s inner self alongside the art, social flânerie and the goings-on of his time. Entertaining and witty, the texts stand out brilliantly with their early acumen and inclusivity, while setting a new template for an expression of queerness through writing. With access to Chaimowicz’s personal material and photographs, curator and editor Alexis Vaillant is a guide to the artist’s writings. Vaillant provides behind-the-scenes commentary and context—a time capsule of pleasure featuring Andy Warhol, Des Esseintes, Josef Frank, David Bowie, Vito Acconci, Eileen Gray, Alex Kapranos, Jean Cocteau, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Genet, Bob Dylan, Emma Bovary and Roger Cook, among others. This book presents readers with an in-depth look into Chaimowicz’s quixotic shaping of his written work, which comes to life as a knowing and longing prose for the twenty-first century.
About the Authors
Paris-born artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz died on May 23, 2024 in London at the age of seventy-seven. Gaining broader acclaim over the years, particularly for its pioneering immersive installation art as well as its prescience in questioning the very function of visual art practice and implicitly elite role in the visual canon. Exhibited internationally throughout five decades, his work is held in the collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern and the Victoria & Albert Museum, both in London; Le Consortium, Dijon, among others. Enthused by the project to publish his writings and interviews, Marc Camille Chaimowicz was involved from the outset in every stage of its development, approving both the text and graphic design.
Former Chief Curator at CAPC, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, Alexis Vaillant is a curator, writer, and editor based in Lisbon. His publications with Sternberg Press include: Legend (2008); Jean-Luc Blanc: Opera Rock (2009); Options With Nostrils (2010); Big Minis: Fetishes of Crisis (2011); Mark von Schlegell’s New Dystopia (2012); On Things As Ideas (2016).
Né à Paris après la Seconde Guerre mondiale d'un père polonais et d'une mère française, Marc Camille Chaimowicz (1947-2024) s'installe dès l'enfance au Royaume-Uni. Il effectue ses études à Ealing, Camberwell et la Slade School of Art à Londres. Dans une nouvelle époque artistique qui prend soin de rapprocher l'art et la vie souvent au moyen de performances, la vie de Marc Camille Chaimowicz devient un grand atelier. Il vit dans les espaces d'exposition, aménage les entrées d'hôtels, les décore avec ses objets, y sert le thé pour les visiteurs sur fond musical. Il abandonne la performance quand celle-ci est identifiée comme une pratique officielle de l'art, trop peu subversive. Il aménage alors entre 1975 et 1979 son propre appartement d'Approach Road. Papiers peints, rideaux et vidéos avec l'artiste se mettant en scène : tout est imaginé, dessiné, conçu sur mesure pour faire de son intérieur une chambre propice aux rêveries. Dès les années 1980, décors et mobiliers prennent place dans les musées au moyen de scénographies quasi théâtrales. Les centaines d'expositions de cet artiste international proposent depuis lors des successions d'intérieurs.
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