avant le concert, après le bal

Editor: So, this is Robert Filliou's "Avant le concert, après le bal" from 1971. It's a mixed-media piece, ink and pencil on cardboard and paper... It feels playful, like a child's drawing, but also intentionally crude. What do you make of this juxtaposition, and the simple, almost Dada-like style? Curator: Playful, yes, like a memory half-forgotten! Filliou, ever the prankster sage, is poking at our notions of 'art.' Is it skill? Is it representation? No, perhaps it's simply *naming*. Before the concert, after the ball… what resonates is the *space* between those events. A fleeting emotional landscape, childlike in its honesty. Dada loved that subversion. But this...it's softer. Does it make you smile, just a little? Editor: It does! The "before" image looks like the ghost of a grand chandelier or maybe some shadowy figures dancing...versus the single music stand 'after'. There's a real sense of the aftermath. How does that emptiness contribute to its meaning? Curator: Emptiness…yes! Think of a stage after the players have left, that lingering echo. The potential, still thrumming. Filliou, through the absurd simplicity, guides us toward that poignant space of potential, or even nostalgia. Perhaps it’s about what is felt versus what is literally seen. Did you notice that they are both drawn inside simple boxes? Editor: It really encapsulates how temporary art is, a show here one day gone the next. I never really looked at the boxes surrounding them...That changes the piece a lot, giving the work the air of containing time itself. Curator: Time… exactly! Held gently within these simple cardboard reliquaries. It is so lighthearted and yet reflective about so many aspects of existence... Editor: So, is the beauty in this piece really in its understated thoughtfulness and honesty? I’m almost rethinking everything I know about what makes great art, now. Curator: Isn’t that the best feeling, though?