Non-Objectif Sud (NOS), a new exhibition space in Tulette, France, is pleased to present the group exhibition Pas de soucis... . Non-Objectif Sud has come full circle this year as it embarks on its second annual summer exhibition. Still exploring its mission that is by no means dogmatic, NOS invites artists and curators to spend a few days together, collaborate, and install an exhibition. A two-storied barn adjoining La Barralière, a nineteenth-century farmhouse in the ruggedly beautiful Drôme provençale, provides the setting for the exhibition, as well as an alternative escape to the ongoing commodification of the art industry. In such an era, the idea of a utopian artist commune and the plein-air painter and Bohemian life style have become somewhat reactionary clichés, and the wish to escape from the clasp of the dealer, the social scene, and the frenzied art world pace to a more bucolic horizon is a reality more than ever. Last year’s inaugural exhibition was dedicated to a panoply of international artists, many of whom work in a nonobjective and minimalist style. This year’s exhibition is curated by Petra Bungert, the director and founder of the Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art (CCNOA), an established art center based in Brussels for emerging and established artists working in contemporary, abstract art. Moreover, CCNOA disseminates a variety of international creative identities and, significantly, creates exchanges with selected art centers, such as NOS. French for ‘no worries, mate’, conveys the laissez-faire attitude conditional to the noonday heat of southern France. Such an environment may seem antithetical to the rigorous and disciplined art practice, yet one need only think of Paul Cézanne’s tireless gaze upon Mont Ste-Victoire—located not so far away—as he explored and developed a new visual language and human perception that would change the course of art and thus create a cool compatibility between summer nonchalance and artistic thought and exercise. This year NOS and CCNOA present the work of 21 international artists – namely John Armleder, John Beech, Cedric Christie, Ward Denys, Clemens Hollerer, Andrew Huston, Renée Levi, Mathieu Mercier, Gerold Miller, Olivier Mosset, Benjamin Rivière, Perry Roberts, Gerwald Pockenschaub, Léopoldine Roux, Michal Skoda, Tilman & Wolfgang Glum, Emmanuelle Villard, Jan Maarten Voskuil, Dan Walsh, and Beat Zoderer, who explore the boundless territories of abstract, nonobjective, concrete, and conceptual art through a dialogue of form and color, working with an eclectic choice of materials, including industrial-based and found objects. By alternately fusing the abstract, the decorative, and the utilitarian, their works interact on the borders of painting, sculpture, installation, architecture, and video, while presenting a complex visual vocabulary, both playful and serious, and expressing the dynamic diversity and relevance of abstract art practice today. To paraphrase the Swiss artist Max Bill, who advocated that abstract thoughts should be represented in a sensuous and tangible form, the collaboration between artists and curators, stimulated by the nearby majestic Mont Ventoux once praised by the fourteenth-century poet Petrarch and the roaring mistral and the colors and fragrances typical of southern France, offer a unique artistic, personal, and sensorial experience inherent to the ethos of NOS. The exhibition will include large site-specific outdoor installations, paintings, objects, multiples, audio, and video works and will be accompanied by a 24-pages full-color publication. CCNOA receives support from the Flemish Authorities (B), the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels-Capital Region (B) & the CCNOA Friends. The exhibition & publication received additional support from Alain Bilteryst N.V./S.A. (B), Anne Buckingham (B), Eleven Fine Art (UK), Eric Linard Editions (F), Galerie Frederic Desimpel (B), Gillis N.V./S.A. (B), the HISK Gent (B), the artists & their representatives. We extend our special thanks to Joy & David Huston, the participating artists & their representatives as well as the artists who supported the NOS 2007 fundraising event.		home
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