The title points to the influence of Marcel Duchamp, often defined as a kind of spell under which many artists of the last century produced their works. Duchamp is considered a forerunner of conceptual art, as his desire to free the artist from the yoke of producing works – created with the sole intention of satisfying “retinal vision” – and his desire to desacralise the artistic gesture understood as creative fury, provoked in artists of subsequent generations reflections on the very essence of art making. The idea, the process and the moment of conception thus become more important than the residual object that, as a result, takes shape, or simply “appears”.

The key work on show is La Boîte en Valise, around which other recent acquisitions from the Collection revolve.