Art - Water and the diamond: revealing the fragile and the immutable
Le Cap 2, by Patrick Messina, 2009. “A Journey” series, film photography, 120x150cm Societe Generale art collection.
Patrick Messina uses a technique that allows him to create, without special effects, a sense of blurring and depth. Like a painter, he plays with nuances, creating his personal interpretation of reality. Through this process, he pays homage to the eternity of the sea with the “A Journey” series.
The new exhibition of the Societe Generale Collection, Water and the diamond1 , consists of around sixty works exploring the complexities and ramifications of the bond that unites human beings and nature. Showing until 31 March, 2024.
Carte Blanche for Lauranne Germond
“Artists often channel a certain sensitivity to the environment, to landscapes, and to the richness of life,” explains Lauranne Germond, guest curator of the exhibition. Co-founder and director of the COAL association – Coalition for a Cultural Ecology –, throughout her career she has explored the intersection between ecology and the visual arts. She has also fuelled consideration of environmental and social issues, working towards a new culture of ecology and life.
1. On show until 31 March, 2024 in the Societe Generale towers in La Défense. To visit it, contact your private banker.
The common thread of the exhibition is “the paradox of water and diamond”, a concept outlined by the economist Adam Smith in the 18th century. Despite its crucial usefulness and its very high use-value, water is worth very little, while the diamond, although useless, has a very significant exchange value. “What is worth the caress of the wind that scatters the seeds across the plains? How much do we value a sunset or the brilliance of a chorus of birds at daybreak? What can rival the glorious richness of forests and the masterful mechanics of a drainage basin? Nature’s resources have a value, their destruction has a cost, but does nature have a price?”, asks Lauranne Germond.
Elvis, by Viviane Sassen, 2006. C-Print on aluminium, 125 x 100 cm.
Societe Generale art collection.
The selection of works, through the variety of eras, cultures and forms thus evoked, embraces the richness and diversity of nature. From ancestral Indonesian sculptures to the very recent photograms of Alžběta Wolfová, from the recycling of Wilhelm Mundt or Vik Muniz to the delicate and contemplative shots of Nils Udo or Thibaut Cuisset, from the questions of Pascal Maitre to those of Otobong Nkanga, the selected works draw on numerous ways of representing our relationship with the environment, of letting ourselves be dazzled by its beauty but also raising awareness of its vulnerability.
Flowers de Andy Warhol, 1971. Ensemble de neuf sérigraphies 90,2 x 90,5 cm chacune. Collection d’art Société Générale.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ADAGP, Paris, 2023.
With the issues of resource management, preservation of ecosystems and the conceptualisation of our relationship with nature having never been so crucial, the exhibition highlights many links and avenues for reflection.
Chongqing IV (Sunday Picnic), Chongqing Municipality, by Nadav Kander, 2006. “Yangtze River Project” series, chromogenic colour print, 126.1 x 152.1 cm. Societe Generale art collection.
March 9 2006, Three Gorges Zigui Hubei, by Luo Dan, 2006. “China Route 318” series, Lambda silver- digital print, 98.7 x 122.8 cm. Societe Generale art collection.
Machine of Entangling Landscapes VII, by Rui Moreina, 2011. Gouache on Velin d’Arches paper Velin d’Arches, 160.4 x 240 cm. Societe Generale art collection.
A Living Art Collection
Created in 1995, combining painting, graphic arts, photography and sculpture, the Societe Generale Collection is today made up of a collection of nearly 1,800 works exhibited at the Group’s premises.
Employees, the general public, partners, customers, school groups or students can discover it through multiple avenues: exhibitions, artistic workshops, partnerships, loans, off-site exhibitions or even via the dedicated website. Its development over time has been the result of a constant and coherent acquisition policy which combines works by established artists with select works from up and coming creators.
By Chloé Perrin
Culture journalist.
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