What is a living sculpture?
Can time be represented?
What should be the lifespan of a work of art?
Who can say do not touch the works?
Can stealing an idea be justified?

The LIVE ART documentary collection attempts to answer these questions by focusing on works referred to as “ephemeral”. These presentations and performances exist only for the duration of an exhibition then disappear, to be – perhaps – recreated in another location. From New York to Istanbul, from the São Paulo Biennial to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, this documentary series makes us question the place of art in our lives and the significance of the staging, the venue and the role of the visitor for an exhibition.

8 episodes’ documentary collection 

LIVE ART #1 – 14 Rooms (Art Basel) 
What is a living sculpture? A statue which gets down off its pedestal in the evening to go home, and then comes back the next morning, becoming once again a work of art. With Marina Abramovic, Xu Zhen, Laura Lima, Jordan Wolfson and others.  

LIVE ART #2 – Joan Jonas (Venice Biennale) 
How can we tell stories that outlive all artistic movements? Joan Jonas, a New York artist, represented the United States at the 2015 Venice Biennale. It was the official, if somewhat tardy, recognition of a pioneering figure in ephemeral, performance and multimedia art forms. For the Biennale, Joan Jonas designed “They Come To Us Without A Word”, an artwork of multi-layered projections, of sound, objects and light-play based around themes which have always been close to her heart: childhood, nature, the body and movement.  

LIVE ART #3 – Philippe Parreno (Armory New-York)  
Can time be represented? Philippe Parreno is an artist but also a maker of films which become sculptures, a director of computers, a conductor of an invisible orchestra and a choreographer of sound and light. Through his works, he brings the invisible into being, by making visible what eludes us…  

LIVE ART #4 – Adrian Villar Rojas (Istanbul) 
Adrian Villar Rojas has performed a special creative ritual since he began his career. He travels around the world and makes site-specific giant sculptures usually of a temporary nature. They deteriorate, decompose, rot, exist. For the Istanbul Biennale in 2016, he created a pack of fabulous animals that he installed in the sea.  

LIVE ART #5 – Take Me, I’m yours (Monnaie de Paris) 
Who says you can’t touch the exhibits? In 1995, the first “Take Me (I’m Yours)” exhibition took place in London and has since become a legend. And 20 years later, here is the sequel, in Paris. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to touch, take, eat or even drink the works of art instead of just looking at them passively.  

LIVE ART # 6 – Tino Sehgal (Palais de Tokyo) 
There is no evidence nor reproduction of these works, as Sehgal has never allowed his actions to be photographed or filmed. His works only materialize during an exhibition and continue to exist only in visitors’ memories. At least up until now…  

LIVE ART # 7 – Sao Paolo Biennale  
What if a large modern art exhibition was not an exclusive event for a specialized audience but a popular festival for a million visitors? The Sao Paolo Biennale is unique by virtue of its location, its monumental size, its audience, its educational concept and its significance for artists.  

LIVE ART # 8 – Simon Denny & Chinese artists (Hong Kong) 
Using the graphic design of modern technologies and advertising, Simon Denny deals with the most up-to-date topics: hacking, products for organizing and shanzhai (copying). Together with Chinese artists, he presents his latest works in Hong Kong, the city where Edward Snowden went into hiding.