ECHOS À COINTET

Introduction to GUY DE COINTET by Frédéric Paul (Flammarion, 2014)

The deeply original and thoroughly eccentric position adopted by Guy de Cointet during his barely 20-year career means, paradoxically, that he today has a place of choice in a contemporary art arena which has managed to absorb poetry, film and stagecraft. We know that Guy de Cointet (1934-1983) belonged to a military family, that Raymond Roussel was a revelation to him, that he went to live in the United States in the mid-1960s (in Los Angeles from 1968 on), that the English language for him was forever as strange as it was foreign, that he played freely with letters and numbers, drawing texts in languages and codes which remain indecipherable, and that he produced shows in which the drawings and objects on view provided argument, stuff, sets and props for performances enacted (almost) as in the theatre. Ten years after his death, a man who was essentially an artist’s artist (in particular for Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley) is more topical than ever, and his plays and performances are being put on all over the world. A major monograph has been published this year by Flammarion. Its author, Frédéric Paul, will come and talk with us about this secret oeuvre in the company of Erik Bullot, film-maker and essayist, whose latest film is titled “La Révolution de l’alphabet”.