OLIVIER ZAHM: Do you think, as I do, that [the art of the early ’90s] was the last avant-garde?
ÉRIC TRONCY: It was… the last generation to address the history of art… the history of avant-garde movements. Today’s young artists address the market…. People who are 20 years old now, I’m actually not sure I envy them.
ZAHM: They have instant and extremely open access to culture, but through a media filter. It’s not necessarily direct access. Direct access was something we sought out.
TRONCY: You know, Olivier, you remember that stuff better than I do…*
On Friday night in Paris, Purple Fashion editor and creative director Olivier Zahm will present his new book UNE AVANT-GARDE SANS AVANT-GARDE—a collection of essays on art written over the last 30 years, co-edited with critic and scholar Donatien Grau, and published by Les presses du réel.
Hosted by Emanuele Coccia at EHESS, Zahm will be joined by curator and critic Nicolas Bourriard, museum director Bernard Blistène, and Les Inrockuptibles co-editor Jean-Marie Durand.
OLIVIER ZAHM—UNE AVANT-GARDE SANS AVANT-GARDE, Friday, May 5, at 7 pm.
AMPHITHÉÂTRE FRANÇOIS FURET, ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES, 105 boulevard Raspail, 6th, Paris.
*Éric Troncy interview with Olivier Zahm, Purple Fashion 24, Fall/Winter 2015/2016, pp. 387, 390.
Bernard Blistène is the director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at Center Pompidou.
Image credit: Purple Diary