Anish Kapoor

Courtesy Kapoor Studio,Photo: Tadzio

The Bombay-born, London-based sculptor, Sir Anish Kapoor is currently exhibiting in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in France, just outside Paris, until November 1.

He is the 8th contemporary artist to be invited for a four month summer show in Versailles, following in the footsteps of the American artist Jeff Koons, the Japanese Takashi Murakami, the Italian Giuseppe Penone, the Korean Lee Ufan, the Portuguese Johanna Vasconcelos, and 2 French artists, Xavier Veilhan and Bernar Venet.

The President of Versailles, Catherine Pegard, invited Kapoor to ‘have a conversation with André Le Notre’ who designed the formal, highly geometrical palace gardens for the illustrious Sun King, Louis XIV. This year is an important anniversary, 300 years since the death of the Sun King.

Kapoor’s approach to the Versailles setting has been more controversial and political than any of the preceding shows. For starters, he has chosen to place one installation in the Jeu de Paume royal tennis court, just outside the Palace grounds. This was the place where the pledge to democracy was sworn by the National Assembly in June 1789, a challenge to the absolute power of King Louis XVI that led directly to the French revolution.

This installation, ‘Shooting into the Corner”, echoes a painting commemorating the pledge, which covers a back wall in the room. It is a large paintball canon surrounded by scattered piles of wax rubble splattered in dark red paint (Kapoor’s signature color) simulating blood and devastation. Even Kapoor described this as a mess in an interview with this journalist. An earlier version of this work was first shown at the British Royal Academy in 2006.

5 other monumental works stand within the palace grounds. The artwork nearest the palace on the terrace, called C-Curve, is a semicircular strip of shining mirror — Kapoor’s signature material. One side turns people upside down and the other makes them taller. This has turned into a popular selfie photo opportunity for the flocking visitors.

Next in line is another mirror that looks like a giant satellite dish, tilted to reflect the ever-changing sky scene — aptly called ‘Sky Mirror’.

Following in the same central axis on Le Notre’s grassy parterre sprawls the most controversial piece –“Dirty Corner”. It is certainly true that this trumpet-like structure, ending in what looks like a rusty pipe and surrounded.

by higgeldy piggeldy piles of rock looks like an ugly eyesore. But that was Kapoor’s intention. He said he couldn’t possibly make the gardens even more beautiful – he could only do the opposite to make a statement. Conservative commentators have lambasted it as a desecration of the gardens and soon after it was installed anonymous vandals sprayed yellow paint over it, making another statement of their own.

Beyond, a whirlpool pond called “Descension”, especially dug for the occasion, swirls black water into a central abyss, roaring like a tsunami.

All these pieces have been shown before, in slightly different forms and different places. The one entirely new piece, created for the occasion, is hidden in a clearing in little wood. Mysteriously titled “Sectional body preparing for Monadic Singularity”, what you can actually see, and can even enter, is a hollow house-sized cube with various interlinked orifices revealing the sky.

Anish Kapoor was the winner of the best young artist’s prize at the 1990 Venice Biennale and the British Turner prize in 1991. In recent years he has created Leviathan, a monumental sculpture at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011, and the ArcelorMittal Orbit viewing tower in London for the 2012 summer Olympic Games.

In spite of all the criticism Anish Kapoor’s intervention provides an interesting contrast to the baroque gilded splendour of the palace and gardens and is not to be missed.

Claudia Barbieri

Courtesy Lisson Gallery, Galleria Massimo Minini, Galleria Continua, Kamel Mennour and Kapoor Studio,Photo: Tadzio

时下正在巴黎市郊的凡尔赛宫举行的，是印裔英国雕塑家安尼施·卡普尔的展览，预计展览持续到九月一号。

卡普尔是继美国艺术家杰夫·昆斯，日本艺术家村上隆，意大利艺术家吉塞普·佩诺内，韩国李禹焕，葡萄牙艺术家琼娜·瓦斯康丝勒，以及两位法国艺术家夏维耶·魏汉，和贝尔纳·维纳特之后，第八位被凡尔赛邀请进行为期四个月夏季展的当代艺术家

此次展览，凡尔赛宫主席凯瑟琳·伯格尔德意在邀请安尼施·卡普尔安，与法国园艺家德烈·勒诺特尔进行一场艺术空间的对

话。这座高度几何化的凡尔赛宫花园，正是德烈·勒诺特尔为当时著名的太阳王路易十四所设计建造的，而今年恰好也是路易十四逝世三百周年纪念。

相比于之前，卡普尔此次的展览有着从未有过的争议性与政治敏感性。首先，他选择了在与凡尔赛宫一墙之隔的皇家网球场，安装第一个作品。 1789年六月第三等级代表曾在这座球场进行过民主宣誓，历史上这次事件象征着对路四十六的绝对权威的挑战，并且引发了后续的法国大革命。

第一个作品的名字叫《向角落开火“Shooting into the Corner”》，致敬一幅挂在球场墙上的纪念宣誓的画作。作品展示了一台被一堆堆暗红色（卡普尔的标志性颜色）的蜡块所环绕的大炮，象征着流血和灾难。连卡普尔自己也在一次采访中表示，这个作品简直乱糟糟。作品的最初版本曾于2006年在英国皇家艺术学院展出。

其他五个纪念性作品依次分布在宫殿的广场上。离宫殿最近的草坪上的一个作品，叫做“C曲线”，是一面由卡普尔的标志性材料做成的闪闪发光的半圆形镜子。镜子的一面是颠倒镜，另一面则可以使镜中的人显得更高。一群群游客把这个作品变成了流行的自拍景点。

与这面镜子相邻并成一条线的，是另外一面形似巨大的圆盘天线的镜子，倾斜着，倒影着天光云影。它有着一个恰到好处的名字“天空之镜”。

接着，在同一条中轴线的勒诺特尔草坪上盘踞着的，就是此次最富争议的作品“肮脏角落”。母庸置疑的是，这个喇叭形的装置，像一根生锈了的管道，环绕四周的是嶙嶙峋峋的石头活像一堆堆视觉垃圾。然而这就是卡普尔想要的效果。他说他不可能让这个花园变得更加美丽了，唯一能做的就是反其道而行之的做一个声明。保守评论家谴责这是对整个花园的亵渎，随后一群匿名的艺术品破坏者就在这个作品上涂上了黄色的颜料，发出了他们自己的声明。

紧随的其后是一个名叫“下降”的临时建造的漩涡池，盘旋的黑水向中心的深渊涌入，咆哮着像一个海啸。

所有展出的作品之前都以略微不同的形式在不同的地方展示过。然而其中一个隐藏着灌木丛中的一块空地上的作品，却是为这次展览临时创作的。这部作品有着神秘的名字：《单细胞个体的身体剖面》；你不仅仅可以远观，还可以进入作品内部，其实它就是一个房子般大小的立方体，从内部透过各种不同又各自相连的孔道，可以窥见外面的天空

安尼施·卡普尔是1990年最佳青年艺术家奖的获得者，并且获得过1991年威尼斯双年展奖项和英国特纳奖。2011年他为巴黎大皇宫创作了纪念性雕塑《利维坦》，并于2012年为伦敦夏季奥运会设计了阿塞洛-米塔尔轨道观光塔。

抛却各种批评不谈，安尼施·卡普尔的介入，为这座巴洛克风格的瑰丽宫殿，提供了一种耐人玩味的对比，总而言之，他的这次展览值得我们的关注

Claudia Barbieri

Courtesy Kapoor Studio, Kamel Mennour and Lisson Gallery,Photo: Fabrice Seixas