Artistic Committee of Étant donnés awards $15,000 grant to Harn Museum of Art

July 28, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Artistic Committee of Étant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, a program of the French American Cultural Exchange, awarded a $15,000 grant to the Harn Museum of Art in June. The museum is one of 14 grant recipients this year. The grant partially funds “Project Europa: Imagining the (Im)Possible,” a contemporary art exhibition opening Feb. 7, 2010.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, “Project Europa” considers the relationship of art to democracy in Europe. The works featured in the exhibition, which include large-scale wall paintings, photography and video by artists from Turkey to the British Isles, explore the complex and subtle relationship between art and politics.

“This grant allows the Harn Museum of Art to showcase the innovative work of three French artists who explore the promise, conflicts and contradictions, of Europe’s democratic dream,” said Kerry Oliver-Smith, curator of contemporary art. “Focusing on issues such as globalization and transnational identity, their work makes a great contribution to the exhibition. This reflection on Europe also provides an avenue to re-examine and reinvigorate our understanding of democracy in the United States.”

Funding from the grant will be used to support the shipping, insurance, installation and catalogue costs for works by French artists Bruno Serralongue, Yto Barrada and Kader Attia. Additionally, the funds will assist in supporting the honorarium and travel expenses for Catherine David, the keynote speaker for the symposium that is to be held in conjunction with the exhibition April 9-10, 2010.

The exhibition is organized by the Harn Museum of Art and made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the C. Frederick and Aase B. Thompson Foundation; Étant donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art, a program of the French American Cultural Exchange; the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History; the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere; the Center for European Studies; and the France Florida Research Institute, with additional support from the Sidney Knight Endowment and the Harn Program Endowment.

For more information call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.