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24/5/2007

A History of One's Own

La Galerie - Contemporary Art Centre, Noisy-le-Sec

Group show

Guest curator in residency: Anna Johansson

Victor Alimpiev, Marie Andersson, Karlotta Blondal, Aurélien Froment, Graham Gussin, Martin Karlsson, Guillaume Leblon

Wishing to contribute to the opening-up the French art scene to professionals from abroad, La Galerie, Contemporary art centre in Noisy-le-Sec, continues its programme of residencies for exhibition curators and invites this year Anna Johansson (born 1976 in Uppsala, lives and works in Malmö, Sweden), in residency in Noisy-le-Sec from 2 April to 30 June 2007.

Taking as its point of departure our urge to endlessly explore other aspects of reality, the exhibition “A History of One!s Own” examines how our relationship to the truth can be enriched, and even modified, by the imaginary, fiction and other states of consciousness. The seven artists presented in the exhibition (three Swedish, one Russian, one British and two French) share an interest in the possibilities of expanding the notion of reality and take action, through different means, in the interstice allowed by its deviances.

While using photography, once seen as the infallible witness, Marie Andersson constructs dreamlike representations from elements of the past. She compiles fragments of old architectural plans and projects views of old-style interiors in her own studio, integrating the observers in the space of the photograph. She also superimposes to it a slide projector, a camera or even their reflection. Through this illusion effects, remnants of the past appear in the present, making the image the receptacle of several spaces-times.

In comparison with the ways a myth or rumour spreads, and conscious of the cinema effect on reality, the intricate stories in Aurélien Froment!s projects confuse the viewer to the point of not distinguishing the real from its representations. His new video, actually the first part of a project he will finalize during the exhibition, looks at the coincidental similarity between Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo and a holiday movie made twenty years after by Froment!s relatives in Amazonia, on the same shooting location as the legendary movie.

Graham Gussin's work deals with the experience of the infinite, using intimations of the unknown to complicate our grasping of reality. His interest in cinema leads him to look into the way images and ideas that belong to films inspire us or even rub off on reality. In the series of photographs shown here for the first time, a nocturnal landscape is his way of revealing what may be visible at the end of the road or even out of the frame.

Martin Karlsson!s interest in the occult rituals of communicating with the departed has led him to experiment with automatic drawing, a practice also used by the Spiritualists in the late 19th Century. In the exhibition, his series of thousands of drawings embodies another state of consciousness, whether it evokes a channel to his subconscious or to a world of spirits.

Victor Alimpiev!s video looks into the possibility of exploring our inner world through faith and imagination. Using choreographed movements, his work creates a fragile but magnificent tension between the two singing women. Taking in consideration the specific act of breathing as part of the orthodox tradition of praying, the lyrics and the song deal with breathing as a repository for our imagination and memory, while reminding how unpredictable life is.

Taking as a starting point an archival photograph of a hotel fire, Karlotta Blöndal has developed a personal interpretation of this document by making a wall drawing from the word “Hotel” and offering the visitors a poster reproducing the scene. Her project emphasises the document!s ambiguity and suggests the shifting nature of reality, dependent on the interpret, even beyond the exhibition space. While the work of Guillaume Leblon!s title and material – a carpet folded inside out – refer to a familiar element, it nevertheless hides something unknown, suggesting that reality is not always what it seems to be. Its content remains enigmatic: relics from a domestic interior? Obscure traces left behind by visitors? Or something else entirely? By taking an unresolved look at reality, the exhibition A History of One!s Own is considering art as a possible locus for the continuous re-negotiation of the present, of our way of perceiving and understanding reality.

Opening Friday 25 May from 6 - 9pm

La Galerie - Contemporary art centre
1 rue Jean-Jaurès -Noisy-le-Sec
Opening hours: From Tuesday to Friday: from 2 - 6pm; Saturday: from 2 - 7pm
Free admission

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