The 1977 book entitled The Third Mind was, in fact, a meeting between two minds. William S Burroughs and Brion Gysin deployed their programmatic literary device, the cut-up - the more or less random cutting-and-pasting of disparate text fragments - to concoct a volume full of surreal half-narratives, the result seeming so other-worldly, even to its creators, that the book appeared to come from a foreign source, literally a third mind. For his curated show at the Palais de Tokyo, the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone has gathered a selection of works by 31 artists, including Burroughs and Gysin, all of whom he takes to be important reference points for his own practice.
The Palais de Tokyo press release - echoing the gallery's erstwhile director Nicolas Bourriaud - refers to Rondinone's project as a 'cut up and remix of the contemporary artistic landscape', but visitors would be well advised not to expect any kind of survey or coherent summation of the international scene. Since the impetus for the selection is primarily a spirit of homage to Burroughs and Gysin, one would rather expect the artist-turned-curator to steer clear of any signs of legibility. And given the baffling character of Rondinone's own work, this is more than a fair expectation. As Pierre-Andrë Lienhard has written, 'the work of Ugo Rondinone seems to organize itself so as to frustrate any effort to apprehend it in its totality.'
The choice of artists is not, after all, quite so off-kilter, and ranges from sculptural co-conspirators like Urs Fischer and Trisha Donnelly, to historical figures (Warhol, Joe Brainard, Paul Thek, Jay Defeo and Emma Kunz). Be warned, however, as The Third Mind is supplemented by what promises to be a very 'out-there' programme of events, ranging 'from cut-ups to bad trips, from psychedelia to paranoia ... visions to nightmares'.
Bill Roberts
The Third Mind: Carte Blanche to Ugo Rondinone
Until 3 January 2008
Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du President Wilson
Paris
Bill Roberts is a writer based in London, and a PhD candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
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