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Vito Acconci, Three Relashionship studies, 1970, © Coll. Centre Pompidou

In an ingenious ruse to air some of their collection, the Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle (Centre Pompidou) is collaborating with the Musée Rodin to bring us The Body as Sculpture, a show that shakes up a visit to the museum with a room of contemporary video art. The videos are well-placed in this context, matching the physicality of Rodin’s sculptures with their obsession with the body. Three artists appear in this series:  Bruce Nauman (5 – 31 Jan), Vito Acconi (2 – 28 Feb) and Sanja Ivekovic (2 – 28 March). Nauman, well known for his video performances, puts himself in front of the camera, testing the limits of his own body and using it as a medium of expression. Acconi is also the star of his own performances, often in opposition with something other – fighting his own shadow or reflection, rubbing cockroaches on his naked body or mimicking someone else’s actions. A close up of his open mouth, in Open Book, speaks incomprehensibly about openness and tolerance. The constantly open mouth makes the artist choke and dribble and the disembodied lips and tongue become ominous abstract shapes. This unnerving vision contrasts to the apparent openness of the message. The series continues in March with Sanja Ivekovic, whose work questions feminism, identity and the history of her native Croatia as well as staging her own body.

The Body as Sculpture is on at the Musée Rodin until 28/03/10

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