PHILIPPE PARRENO -
Espace Louis Vuitton - Venice
"ELSEWHEN"
Collateral Event of the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
From 11 May to 24 November 2019
The Fondation Louis Vuitton is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibition, Elsewhen, displaying a whole new installation by French artist Philippe Parreno at the Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia. As part of the Collateral Events of the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, this presentation has been produced in the framework of the Fondation Louis Vuitton “Hors-lesmurs” programme. This programme, inaugurated in 2014, showcases previously unseen holdings of the Collection in the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Beijing and Venice, thus realizing the Fondation’s commitment to mount international projects and make them accessible to a broader public.
Emerging on the art scene in the early 1990s, Philippe Parreno constantly changes the relationship of an artwork and its exhibition ‒ the very notion of the exhibition is a creative piece; a polyphonic entity that he conceives as a large automaton composed of diverse media, ranging from film, IT and soundtrack, to drawing, sculpture and animation. These elements come together in a scripted space, a choreography using a recurrent vocabulary that notably includes marquees, balloons, music, sounds, films and objects to create an intangible sensory experience. Time is also a core component, setting a tempo for the exhibition: time-coded computer programmes create sequences, control sound, lighting effects and activate spaces and objects.
Parreno has used the activity of living microorganisms housed in a bioreactor conceived and engineered by scientists Jean-Baptiste Boulé (CNRS ‒ French National Centre for Scientific Research, French National Museum of Natural History, Sorbonne University) and Nicolas Desprat (Statistical Physics Laboratory, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research ‒ University Paris-Diderot Sorbonne Paris-Cité) to run his exhibitions since If This Then Else (Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2016). Yeasts have continued to grow and mutate throughout major exhibitions at Tate Modern, London, the Jumex Museum, Mexico City, or the Gropius Bau, Berlin. Each presentation is an experiment that measures reactions of the microorganisms to their environment which, in turn, will influence the exhibition. This new work continues this story and the enduring development of the microorganisms, the memory of the exhibition played back as remembered by the bioreactor.
While the walls are covered in a phosphorescent yellow wallpaper patterned with black irises, a grand luminous marquee, reinventing those that once stood on top of cinema entrances, floats above a large vertical mechanical mirrored shutter. An experimental hybrid digital programme controls these interdependent elements, causing light to appear or disappear at irregular intervals by rotating the louvres and forcing pulses of air or synthetically generated sounds, all echoing the microorganisms’ reactions integrated in the programme. As the blinds move, the mirror reflects silhouettes of viewers and the structure of the marquee. When the light turns out, all shapes become ghostlike, accentuated by the phosphorescent walls mutating to dark green and black. Far from their initial utilitarian nature, the elements take on a playfully equivocal identity, bringing the pulse of life into the space and building a singular interaction between the viewer and the context.
In Elsewhen, Parreno creates an experience where memory of the past comes together in a disruptive temporality. The familiar
markers of perception are annihilated in favour of a stimulating process of inventing new ways of understanding, defying rational categories and the established order.
About the artist
French artist Philippe Parreno was born in 1964. He approaches the exhibition as a medium and is constantly questioning and reinventing its format through film, sculpture, performance, drawing and text. He has works represented in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Kanazawa Museum of the 21st Century, Japan; MoMA, New York, USA; Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA. Recently, Parreno has presented solo exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2014/2013); Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia (2013); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland (2012); Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2010-2011); Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, USA (2009-10); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2009-10); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2009) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2009). His work has also appeared in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (1993, 1995, 2003, 2007, and 2009), Lyon Biennale, France (1997, 2003, and 2005), and Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2001). In 2016, Philippe Parreno was awarded the prestigious Hyundai Commission at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in London, UK, titled Anywhen.
Philippe Parreno currently lives and works in Paris, France.
About the curator
Art historian and art critic, Béatrice Parent joined ARC (The Contemporary Art Department of Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris) in 1981 under the direction of Suzanne Pagé where she realised numerous exhibitions of both emerging and renowned artists from France, Europe and the US. Since 1995, Parent’s work focused on monographs of great figures in the international art scene, including: Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, Christian Boltanski, Niele Toroni, Bertrand Lavier, Bernard Frize, Annette Messager, Dan Flavin; as well as important group shows such as La Peinture après l’abstraction [Painting after Abstraction] with Alain Cueff and Voilà. Le monde dans la Tête [Voilà, the world in the head] with Suzanne Pagé. She also was the exhibition program coordinator and responsible for the contemporary collections (acquisitions and presentations).
In 2005, Parent co-curated the French Pavilion at the 51th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia with Suzanne Pagé, which was awarded the Golden Lion for Annette Messager’s work, Casino. From October 2006 to July 2015, Parent was the Curator in charge of collections at Fondation Louis Vuitton. In 2015, Parent co-curated the exhibition Les Clefs d’une passion [Keys to a passion] with Suzanne Pagé. She curated the exhibition Pierre Huyghe at Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia as Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2017.
About the Fondation Louis Vuitton
The Fondation Louis Vuitton serves the public interest and is exclusively dedicated to contemporary art and artists, as well as 20th century works to which their inspirations can be traced. The Collection and the exhibitions it organises seek to engage a broad public. The magnificent building created by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and already recognized as an emblematic example of the 21st century architecture, constitutes the Fondation’s seminal artistic statement. Since its opening in October 2014, the Fondation has welcomed more than five million visitors from France and around the world.
The Fondation Louis Vuitton commits to engage in international initiatives, both at the Fondation and in partnership with public and private institutions, including other foundations and museums such as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg (Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection), the MoMA in New York (Being Modern: MoMA in Paris), and the Courtauld Gallery in London (The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism) among others. The artistic direction also developed a specific “Hors-les-murs” programme taking place within the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Beijing and Venice which are exclusively devoted to exhibitions of works from the Collection. These exhibitions are open to the public free of charge and promoted through specific cultural communication.
#fondationlouisvuitton
Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm
and on Sunday from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm
Open on public holidays. Free entrance
Emerging on the art scene in the early 1990s, Philippe Parreno constantly changes the relationship of an artwork and its exhibition ‒ the very notion of the exhibition is a creative piece; a polyphonic entity that he conceives as a large automaton composed of diverse media, ranging from film, IT and soundtrack, to drawing, sculpture and animation. These elements come together in a scripted space, a choreography using a recurrent vocabulary that notably includes marquees, balloons, music, sounds, films and objects to create an intangible sensory experience. Time is also a core component, setting a tempo for the exhibition: time-coded computer programmes create sequences, control sound, lighting effects and activate spaces and objects.
Parreno has used the activity of living microorganisms housed in a bioreactor conceived and engineered by scientists Jean-Baptiste Boulé (CNRS ‒ French National Centre for Scientific Research, French National Museum of Natural History, Sorbonne University) and Nicolas Desprat (Statistical Physics Laboratory, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research ‒ University Paris-Diderot Sorbonne Paris-Cité) to run his exhibitions since If This Then Else (Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2016). Yeasts have continued to grow and mutate throughout major exhibitions at Tate Modern, London, the Jumex Museum, Mexico City, or the Gropius Bau, Berlin. Each presentation is an experiment that measures reactions of the microorganisms to their environment which, in turn, will influence the exhibition. This new work continues this story and the enduring development of the microorganisms, the memory of the exhibition played back as remembered by the bioreactor.
While the walls are covered in a phosphorescent yellow wallpaper patterned with black irises, a grand luminous marquee, reinventing those that once stood on top of cinema entrances, floats above a large vertical mechanical mirrored shutter. An experimental hybrid digital programme controls these interdependent elements, causing light to appear or disappear at irregular intervals by rotating the louvres and forcing pulses of air or synthetically generated sounds, all echoing the microorganisms’ reactions integrated in the programme. As the blinds move, the mirror reflects silhouettes of viewers and the structure of the marquee. When the light turns out, all shapes become ghostlike, accentuated by the phosphorescent walls mutating to dark green and black. Far from their initial utilitarian nature, the elements take on a playfully equivocal identity, bringing the pulse of life into the space and building a singular interaction between the viewer and the context.
In Elsewhen, Parreno creates an experience where memory of the past comes together in a disruptive temporality. The familiar
markers of perception are annihilated in favour of a stimulating process of inventing new ways of understanding, defying rational categories and the established order.
About the artist
French artist Philippe Parreno was born in 1964. He approaches the exhibition as a medium and is constantly questioning and reinventing its format through film, sculpture, performance, drawing and text. He has works represented in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Kanazawa Museum of the 21st Century, Japan; MoMA, New York, USA; Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA. Recently, Parreno has presented solo exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2014/2013); Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia (2013); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland (2012); Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2010-2011); Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, USA (2009-10); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2009-10); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2009) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2009). His work has also appeared in the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy (1993, 1995, 2003, 2007, and 2009), Lyon Biennale, France (1997, 2003, and 2005), and Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2001). In 2016, Philippe Parreno was awarded the prestigious Hyundai Commission at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in London, UK, titled Anywhen.
Philippe Parreno currently lives and works in Paris, France.
About the curator
Art historian and art critic, Béatrice Parent joined ARC (The Contemporary Art Department of Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris) in 1981 under the direction of Suzanne Pagé where she realised numerous exhibitions of both emerging and renowned artists from France, Europe and the US. Since 1995, Parent’s work focused on monographs of great figures in the international art scene, including: Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, Christian Boltanski, Niele Toroni, Bertrand Lavier, Bernard Frize, Annette Messager, Dan Flavin; as well as important group shows such as La Peinture après l’abstraction [Painting after Abstraction] with Alain Cueff and Voilà. Le monde dans la Tête [Voilà, the world in the head] with Suzanne Pagé. She also was the exhibition program coordinator and responsible for the contemporary collections (acquisitions and presentations).
In 2005, Parent co-curated the French Pavilion at the 51th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia with Suzanne Pagé, which was awarded the Golden Lion for Annette Messager’s work, Casino. From October 2006 to July 2015, Parent was the Curator in charge of collections at Fondation Louis Vuitton. In 2015, Parent co-curated the exhibition Les Clefs d’une passion [Keys to a passion] with Suzanne Pagé. She curated the exhibition Pierre Huyghe at Espace Louis Vuitton Venezia as Collateral Event of the Biennale Arte 2017.
About the Fondation Louis Vuitton
The Fondation Louis Vuitton serves the public interest and is exclusively dedicated to contemporary art and artists, as well as 20th century works to which their inspirations can be traced. The Collection and the exhibitions it organises seek to engage a broad public. The magnificent building created by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and already recognized as an emblematic example of the 21st century architecture, constitutes the Fondation’s seminal artistic statement. Since its opening in October 2014, the Fondation has welcomed more than five million visitors from France and around the world.
The Fondation Louis Vuitton commits to engage in international initiatives, both at the Fondation and in partnership with public and private institutions, including other foundations and museums such as the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg (Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection), the MoMA in New York (Being Modern: MoMA in Paris), and the Courtauld Gallery in London (The Courtauld Collection. A Vision for Impressionism) among others. The artistic direction also developed a specific “Hors-les-murs” programme taking place within the Espaces Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Beijing and Venice which are exclusively devoted to exhibitions of works from the Collection. These exhibitions are open to the public free of charge and promoted through specific cultural communication.
#fondationlouisvuitton
Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm
and on Sunday from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm
Open on public holidays. Free entrance