Born in 1952 in Minerviu, Corsica, France
Lives and works in Paris, France

Since the 1980s, Ange Leccia has used pre-existing materials in his work on the moving image as well his reflections on the object. Through video and sculpture, the artist has developed “arrangements”, by means of processes of superposition and confrontation, in order to obtain “the right point in the relationship between things”. Ange Leccia is an advocate of the practice of “manipulation”, for both objects and images; he strips them of their function for the sake of a poetic questioning of their meaning and the way in which they reflect the society that uses them.

Le Baiser (“The Kiss”) is one of Leccia’s earliest arrangements. It consists of two switched-on film spotlights placed faceto-face on the floor. In a nod to the generic kiss in legendary films such as Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942), the artist says the installation is, “a conversation, a human relationship”. The heat and energy of the beams of light are a metaphor for the intensity of two lovers meeting, encapsulating and prolonging a transitory emotional state. Romantic in spite of its industrial nature, the work belongs in the tradition of kisses in sculpture — from Auguste Rodin to Constantin Brancusi — although Leccia subverts the aesthetic codes of that tradition.

Artist(s)

Discover also

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Jesper JustNo Man is an Island II, 2004

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Chantal AkermanIn the Mirror, 1971

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Sylvie Fanchon

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Stéphane ThidetAu bout du souffle, 2011

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Taysir BatnijiDisruptions, 2015-2017

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Joséphine BerthouGendarme et voleur, 2024

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)

  • Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian

Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)