The emotional and visual impact of Adel Abdessemed’s work stems from its muted violence and its potent capacity for salutary expression, transgression and derision. In the eleven photographs and two videos on show here, Abdessemed reinvents the world and its animal violence. Showing exotic beasts in urban settings, posing in the arms of a statue of Abraham Lincoln in a New York street, or disguising himself as a gorilla so as to slip a wedding ring onto the finger of a pretty bride, the artist blurs the boundaries between art and private life, between self-representation and animality – and situates himself in that uncertain zone where our reality as human beings is far more complex than that of the civilised facade we offer to the gaze of our contemporaries and neighbours. In the two short films we see a foot angrily crushing a Coca-Cola can and a microphone. " Foot On" and "Talk is Cheap" are at once meaningful and highly ambiguous: comprising two rapid shots, they have a hypnotic, repetitive side that lays bare vertiginous horizons in the most secret fault-lines of our minds.

François Morellet’s neons in conversation with the architecture of Le Corbusier, Lyon’s first-ever film festival, the 11th sculpture quinquennial in Bienne, Switzerland, and more... Travel around the Rhône-Alpes region and beyond during the Biennale, courtesy of nine major events.
11 rue du docteur Dolard, Villeurbanne
33 (0)4 78 03 47 00
www.rendezvous09.fr
Rendez-vous 09
from 14.09.09 to 29.11.09
Opening: 13.09.09, from 11:00am
Exceptionally open during the preview days of the Xth Biennale de Lyon 14+15.09.09
49 Quai Rambaud, Lyon 2nd
+33 (0)4 78 42 98 50
www.docksartfair.com
14.09.09 to 20.09.09
Opening: 15.09.09, from 7:00pm
BP 105, Eveux, L’Arbresle
33 (0)4 74 26 79 70
www.couventlatourette.com
François Morellet chez Le Corbusier
from 12.09.09 to 8.11.09
Opening: 18.09.09, from 6:00pm
La Terrasse, BP 80241, Saint-Étienne
33 (0)4 77 79 52 52
www.mam-st-etienne.fr
“The Attraction of Space – Deep Into the Unknown in Search of the New”
from 14.09.09 to 10.01.10
Opening: Friday 18.09.09 from 6:00pm
Chemin du château d’eau, Francheville
33 (0)4 72 13 71 00
from 14.09.09 to 3.01.10
Opening: 19.09.09, from 12:00
Exceptionally open: from 14 to 20.09.09, from 3:00 to 7:00pm to coincide with the Biennale de Lyon opening
Site Bouchayer-Viallet,
155 cours Berriat, Grenoble
33 (0)4 76 21 95 84
www.magasin-cnac.org
“Portrait of an Artist” – Olivier Mosset
from 11.10.09 to 3.01.10
Opening: 10.10.09 from 6:00pm
25 rue du Premier Film, Lyon 8th
33 (0)4 78 76 77 78
http://www.lumiere2009.org
Lumière 2009
from 13 to 18.09.09
The city’s inaugural film festival, in cinemas across Greater Lyon.
Opening ceremony: 13.09.09 at 8:30pm, Tony Garnier Hall Lyon
34 rue de la Charité, Lyon 2nd
33 (0)4 78 38 42 00
www.musee-des-tissus.com
2nd Biennale of Contemporary Textile Design: Fabric Every Which Way
from 20.11.09 to 21.02.10
Opening: 19.11.09
Welcome and information office:
Place de la gare, CH-Bienne
+41 32 322 85 01
www.ess-spa.ch
www.u-topics.org
UTOPICS – 11th Swiss Sculpture Exhibition
from 29.08.09 to 25.10.09