AVIGNON.- More than a retrospective, the exhibition "I Believe in Miracles" brings together a number of artists invited to take part in thematic exhibitions and have marked the site over the last 10 years, for instance with "Artists Collections" in 2001, "A fripon, fripon et demi" in 2003, "Figures of the Player, the Paradox of the Actor" in 2006, or those invited to have their first large scale exhibition in France, including Andres Serrano, Candice Breitz, Francis Alÿs and Christian Marclay, as well as Cy Twombly, Sol LeWitt, Miquel Barceló and Douglas Gordon.
The Collection Lambert opened its doors in June 2000 during the celebrations for 'Avignon - European Cultural Capital'. With a view to making a future donation, gallerist and collector Yvon Lambert decided to place on loan 350 artworks. Housed in an 18th century mansion, these works are borrowed from his personal collection that at this stage comprises more than 1200 artworks dating from the 1960s to the present day.
A site for creativity, exchange and diffusion, with museum attendance levels doubling since the first two years of opening, Collection Lambert proposes five zones within the 2000m2 of the museum: exhibitions, preventive conservation, activities targeting young viewers, the museum bookshop and artists' editions and the restaurant situated in the hôtel particulier's courtyard.
Three exhibitions are organised each year, often in connection with current artistic events, the Avignon Theatre Festival or in co-production with international institutions. For the past seven years these exhibitions have enabled the museum to shine, as much from a regional as from an international standpoint. In autumn and winter a monographic exhibition allows for the discovery of an already established or emerging artist's work: Francis Alÿs or Sol LeWitt, Salla Tykkä or Christian Marclay, Andres Serrano, Candice Breitz, Douglas Gordon and soon Roni Horn. Each of these exhibitions becomes a veritable mise-en-scène with each artist freely taking over the spaces in which they have chosen to present video or painting, photography or installations.
In the spring part of the collection is presented or a large thematic exhibition is organised in the museum. This was the case, for example, with A Fripon, Fripon & demi with more than 350 artworks about childhood, Eijanaika, Yes, Future!, an exhibition of the young contemporary art scene in Japan which was commissioned for Lille 2005 then shown in Avignon, or Il Faut rendre à Cézanne... presented firstly in Aix-en-Provence during the celebrations of the centenary of Paul Cézanne's death, then at the Collection Lambert in the spring of 2007.
Finally in summer, large scale events touching the general public and enlightened art lovers alike bring new perspectives on contemporary art, associated with classic, older artworks: Artists' Collections in 2001 proposed the discovery of prestigious collections of artists from Jasper Johns to Arman, Nan Goldin to Miquel Barceló, in 2006 Figures of the Player, the Paradox of the Actor was a confrontation of portraits of contemporary actors with those loaned by the Comédie-Française...
The Collection Lambert also organises exhibitions in Provence (Arles, Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Tarascon...) and overseas, exhibiting the collection of works on paper in Yokohama in 1998, works by Nan Goldin in Montreal in 2003 and Moscow in 2006 or conceptual photography for Photoespana in Madrid in 2004, the masterpieces of the collection in Roma (Villa Medici) in 2008.
Artists included in the exhibition: Artistes anonymes du XXe siècle av.J.-C. au XIXe siècle, Pierre-Marie Agin, Antoine + Manuel, Azzedine Alaïa, Francis Alÿs, Carlos Amorales, Alice Anderson, David Askevold, Miquel BarcelÓ, Robert Barry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jean-Charles Blais, Bill Beckler, Gilles Bensimon, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Katia Bourdarel, Louise Bourgeois, Slater Bradley, Candice Breitz, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Andre Cadere, Julia Margaret Cameron, Mircea Cantor, Etienne Carjat, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Cézanne, Christo, Robert Combas, François-Xavier Courrèges, Salvador Dali, Daniel Dezeuze, Delvaux, Jan Dibbets, Jason Dodge, Marcel Dzama, Bernard Faucon, Dan Flavin, Spencer Finch, Gisele Freund, Hamish Fulton, Ryan Gander, Vincent Ganivet, Anna Gaskell, Gilbert & George, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Loris Gréaud, Shilpa Gupta, Raoul Hausmann, Isabell Heimerdinger, Garry Hill, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Douglas Huebler, Koo Jeong-a, Burn Jones, Donald Judd, Idris Kahn, On Kawara, Zilvinas Kampinas, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, Joseph Kosuth, Joey Kotting, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Bertrand Lavier, Louise Lawler, Zoe Leonard, Claude Lévêque, Sol LeWitt, Ogle Winston Link, Richard Long, Robert Mangold, Édouard Manet, Christian Marclay, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Adam McEwen, Jonas Mekas, Jonathan Monk, Vik Muniz, Rei Naito, Rika Nogushi, Dennis Oppenheim, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Jean Prouvé, Man Ray, Odilon Redon, Kay Rosen, Robert Ryman, Julian Schnabel, Richard Serra, David Shrigley, Andres Serrano, Edward J. Steichen, Kimsooja, Daniel Spoerri, Haim Steinbach, Catherine Sullivan, Niele Toroni, Stephan Toth, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Salla Tykka, Nick van Woert, Francesco Vezzoli, Mark Wallinger, Lawrence Weiner
