Flâneurs : Copies, Appropriations, CItations from the Collection of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques – Francesca Zappia

Softback

572 pages

Shelter Press

ISBN: 9782365820424

Every change of context, every change of medium can be interpreted as a negation of the status of a copy as a copy—as an essential rupture, as a new start that opens a new future. In this sense, a copy is never really a copy; rather, a new original in a new context. Every copy is by itself a flaneur—experiencing time and again its own “profane illuminations” that turn it into an original. It loses old auras and gains new auras. It remains perhaps the same copy, but it becomes different originals. – Boris Groys, Going Public

Les Flâneuses results from curatorial research carried out within the collections of the Centre national des arts plastiques, which focused on the contested notions of copies, appropriations and quotations. Looking at art and design objects from the 19th century to today, this curatorial project shows how reproductions of artworks can be considered as objects with a specific cultural value.