TA-DA !

Interviewed by Mauricio Estrada-Munoz, Project Head, Educational Activity and Young Audience Programming

On the invitation of the Centre Pompidou, Navid Nuur takes over the children's gallery to turn it into his new experimental playground. In the exhibition-workshop entitled “TA-DA!” the artist divulges tricks for transforming an object or an idea into a work of art. To this end, he conceives a series of “interimodules”, adaptable works, often ephemeral, which influence each other, where the child, through its action, takes part in the process of creation. The exclamation TA-DA! expresses awe, like that of a magician who pulls off his trick. As is his habit, Navid Nuur questions, transforms, combines and hijacks everyday objects. He scrutinises the world and its expressions to better understand them and to turn them into a poetised version.

MAURICIO ESTRADA-MUÑOZ – How did you design the exhibition-workshop for children? What are you inviting them to do?
NAVID NUUR – It's often been observed that children react quite particularly and quite spontaneously to my works at fairs and exhibitions. Why? I didn't know, but it attracted me and aroused my curiosity. I also toured various museums to better understand what is offered to them and I realised that they were more or less the same programmes, the same objects, a little formulaic, and doubtlessly a little caricature-like. With 'TA-DA!' I wanted them to feel the materials, the moment when the work becomes the work, the moment when you feel that it's there and you give it a name. The title of the exhibition-workshop is particularly pertinent: it's the child's feeling when faced with a work or the experience of creation. A surprise, a discovery.

MEM – As a child, what was your relationship with art and with museums in general?
NN – I didn't visit a museum until the age of 25 I think and I must have done so solely through school. During my adolescence I was into skateboarding and graffiti; the city and the night were my playgrounds and I created in that environment. It was our own culture. For us, for me, museums were places where elderly people went with their grandchildren because they were too old to play in the park. I know that seems harsh, but it was really what I thought at the time. It's boring when someone tells you – without explaining why and what it is really – that you have to walk slowly, not raise your voice and most of all not touch anything! Would you want to go to a similar place? Of course not!

MEM – Do you remember your first encounter with art?
NN – I think I was three or four years old and I was playing with other children and plasticine. The material was quite hard; it had to be kneaded constantly to stay warm and supple. I got into the habit of placing it on a radiator until it was really malleable. One day, I forgot to take it off in time: it had all dripped onto the floor. This vision really marked me. From that day on, I wanted to create this “radiator plasticine” over and over again […]. And my mother was not very happy. I managed it three times, but I remember each one perfectly. It took me more than twenty years to be able to make a connection between this experience and something that you could call “art”.