This exhibition has its origins in the acquisition of a portfolio by Roman Opalka that includes fifty self-portraits of the artist based on an unchanging protocol from 1965 until his death. This protocol aimed at recording the trace of irreversible time.

The theme of time has a strong presence in the works of our collections: by its nature, engraving lends itself to series, sequences, or declensions within which each work simultaneously exists on its own account and as a fragment of a temporal progression. The technical process of engraving, which covers several stages and involves a transfer, naturally induces a form of slowness and the disintegration of time. The book, which resembles a personal diary, notebook or log, also gives time a visible form that it breaks down to the rhythm of pages turned.

Suspended, lost, concealed, hazy, erased, elapsed, digested, blacked out, captured, mastered, fixed, fought, instrumentalised, frozen, altered, metamorphosed... the concept of time and its trace are dealt with through around 250 works, quite often serialised, from the collections of the Centre de la Gravure et de l?Image imprimée.

Artists:
Christiane BAUMGARTNER // Carole BENZAKEN // Edouard BOYER // Kévin BRITTE // Pierre BURAGLIO // Balthasar BURKHARD // Sophie CALLE // Sylvie CANONNE // Christian CAREZ // Jean CLAREBOUDT // Kikie CRÊVEC?UR // Anne DE GELAS // David DE TSCHARNER //  Jean DUBUFFET // Susumu ENDO // Michel FRANÇOIS // Carsten HÖLLER // Christian JACCARD // Ingrid LEDENT // Urs LÜTHI // Takesada MATSUTANI // Agathe MAY // Muriel MOREAU // Tetsuya NODA // Marc OCTAVE // Roman OPA?KA // Anne-Emilie PHILIPPE // Sandra PLANTIVEAU // José Maria SICILIA // Maja SPASOVA // Luc TUYMANS // Thierry WESEL