The Musée d’art moderne et d’art contemporain in Nice (MAMAC), presents a retrospective of the work of Gustav Metzger, running until the 14th of May.

Gustav Metzger, best-known for his auto-destructive art and left-wing activism, was born in Nuremberg in 1926 to Polish-Jewish parents. For more than six decades, he has been using everyday materials like newspapers, cardboard, and paper bags to address issues close to his heart, such as extinction, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, terrorist bombings, climate change and environmental pollution.

 
Metzger’s work has been presented in solo exhibitions around the world, from The New Museum in New York (2011), to the Serpentine Gallery in London (2009), but calls for public participation are really what lies at the core of his artistic practice.

In 1961, for instance, wearing a gas mask, Metzger performed one of the most famous acts of auto-destructive art when he threw hydrochloric acid at a sheet of nylon on London’s South Bank.

This is why, in parallel with MAMAC’s main exhibition, Remember Nature, the public were invited to witness the reenactment of two are Metzger’s main creations. Aside from the aforementioned South Bank demonstration which was recreated earlier this month, students from the École de Condé also recreated Mobbile, a sculpture placed inside a clear Plexiglas box, affixed to the roof of a car that was driven through the streets of Nice for a week at the end of January.

https://youtu.be/9nzzLdiI9eg

Remember Nature runs daily from 11am to 6pm until the 14th of May (closed Mondays).

CONTACT DETAILS
MAMAC
Place Yves Klein
06364 Nice cedex 4

Lead image MAMAC Nice © RIVIERA BUZZ