Jean-Michel Alberola L’Effondrement des enseignes lumineuses

In 1995, Jean-Michel Alberola realized a monumental installation for the ground floor space of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, entitled L’Effondrement des enseignes lumineuses. During this exhibition, the space given over to the artist became a vast field of relations revolving around fragments of discourse on the diminishing place of painting in an image-based society.
Two editions of the same book were published for the exhibition, one a limited edition signed by Jean-Michel Alberola. They feature his research and reflections on the critical function and meaning of painting through letters he wrote to Hervé Chandès, the director of the Fondation Cartier and curator of the exhibition, during the preparation of the show. These are accompanied by numerous texts by authors such as Charles Péguy, Simone Weil or Mikhail Bakunin.