Conference by Jean-Christophe Bailly

The purpose will be to recount the exclusive relationship I have contracted with Goya's painting entitled The Family of the Infant Don Luis (1784), which is kept at the Villa Magnani-Rocca near Parma. A work of Goya's youth, this painting is a group portrait in which 14 figures, including the painter himself, who has depicted himself at work, stand out against the night. Lit by torchlight during a performance in the Villa for which I had written the text, this early painting by Goya began to haunt me.

So much so that, even beyond what I said about it in the show, I decided to carry out an in-depth investigation into its mysterious aspects and the knot of destinies it condenses, starting with a nocturnal vision in which the fright so characteristic of the painter's future work is still only a quiver. The project of this exploration has been with me for years, and I will also try to understand why I delay it endlessly, as if it were a matter of suspending the painting's power to resound, taken here therefore as the very example of what an image can conceal.

Jean-Christophe Bailly is a writer. He has long directed the Détroits collection (ed. Christian Bourgois) and an art history collection (ed. Hazan). He has also worked in theater, both as an author and a producer, including abroad (India, Russia, Italy). J.C. Bailly has published some twenty books, at the crossroads of history, art history, philosophy and poetry: Le Versant animal (ed. Bayard, 2007), L'Atelier infini (ed. Hazan, 2007), L'Instant et son ombre (ed. Seuil, 2008), Le Dépaysement (ed. Seuil, 2011), Le Parti pris des animaux and La Phrase urbaine (ed. Seuil, 2013). He is the author of monographs on contemporary artists and, recently, an essay on Fayoum portraits. 

This lecture series is a co-production of UCArts - Direction de la Culture d'Université Côte d'Azur and the Musée national du XX^e siècle des Alpes-Maritimes. The six lectures are organized in partnership with the association des Amis du musée national Marc Chagall.

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