In 2005, artist Liam Gillick was disappointed by the poster originally designed and displayed by Le Palais de Tokyo in Paris on the occasion of his exhibition Texte court sur la possibilité de créer une véritable économie de l’équivalence [Short text on the possibility of creating an equivalence economy]. Gillick personally commissioned M/M (Paris) to create a new poster for the exhibition, just two weeks before the opening. A series of twenty-five identical “freshly redesigned” posters was displayed for the duration of the exhibition at the entrance of the museum as a sign of protest.
Poster, Airs de Paris, 2007. Designed by M/M (Paris): Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak for Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France). Screenprint. 176 × 120 cm (5 ft. 9 5/16 in. × 47 1/4 in.). Gift of M/M (Paris), 2015-4-4.
The exhibition Airs de Paris was curated by Christine Macel and Daniel Birnbaum at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2007. M/M (Paris) designed a personal version of the official exhibition poster; their counter proposal was presented as an art piece displayed within the exhibition itself. The poster depicts the Centre Pompidou with a variety of small objects and museum souvenirs. The poster also announced an eight-year retrospective of M/M (Paris)’s Art Poster Series. The retrospective featured a presentation of thirty-two full-scale posters followed by an exhibition of posters reduced to one-third of their original size, accompanied by a boxed edition of the miniature reproductions (estampes), exhibited throughout the space.
Ellen Lupton is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art.
The exhibition How Posters Work is currently on view at Cooper Hewitt through November 15, 2015. You can learn more at the exhibition homepage and find the book How Posters Work at SHOP Cooper Hewitt. #HowPostersWork
