untitled (nuage), the neon piece created by
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b. 1965 in
Strasbourg) is both the title of a work presented in
the multi-titled 2024 summer group exhibition
at Fondation Beyeler and a piece in its own right. As
such, it continues a series of titles as neons which
started in 1997 with Moment Ginza and continued
with Exotourisme 2002 at Centre Pompidou and
the other titles as neons Splendide Hotel (2014),
Endodrome (2019) and Alienarium5 (2022). All of
them are editions.
Only untitled (nuage) is unique and as a title tells of
the difficulty of naming the apparitions on the
giant square screen set up outside in front of the sky,
though without revealing anything.
This neon is conceived as a cloud (“nuage”) of
letters and light.
The lexical combination of “untitled + (word)” can
also be seen as an emotional reference to Felix
Gonzalez-Torres’s way to name many of his artworks.
Insisting on the title and its uncertainty is also
a gentle nod to the fact that this exhibition has had
multiple and changing titles over time.
Light blue neon
40 × 82 cm
Unique
Copyright: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Courtesy: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Provenance: donated by the artist
