Garage Center for Contemporary Culture presents the first solo exhibition in Russia by Philippe Parreno, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and with sound composed by Nicolas Becker.
The artist will show his most recent work, Marilyn (2012) – guiding the visitor through the exhibition space using an orchestration of sounds and images.
For more than twenty years, Parreno has radically redefined the exhibition experience by conceiving his shows as a scripted space where a series of events unfold. He creates as much space and time as possible in a given volume, by folding and unfolding the space onto itself.
Parreno developed these techniques in his most recent project Dancing around the Bride at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – where, as metteur-en-scène, he orchestrated the concepts of time and motion around the artworks of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Marcel Duchamp. Likewise, at his recent eponymous exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London, spectators moved collectively from room to room following a soundtrack.
His exhibition at Garage – like the ice skating rink and artificial snow in Gorky Park – acts as an elaborate stage-set for this choreography to take place. Here, unlike Parreno’s previous exhibitions, the visitors produce ‘a form as a crowd’ just as ice skaters produce an ellipse on the ice skating rink.
Parreno’s latest film Marilyn conjures up Marilyn Monroe through a phantasmagoric séance in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, where she lived in the 1950s. Phantasmagoria was an early form of cinema, a kind of circus act where conjurers would use lighting and artificial smoke to summon an ethereal apparition in an attempt to bring back the dead. Here, the image is taken from the point of view of the deceased Marilyn. The film reproduces Marilyn Monroe’s presence by means of three algorithms: the camera becomes her eyes, a computer reconstructs the prosody of her voice and a robot recreates her handwriting.
Philippe Parreno's Public Talk
Guided Tours of Philippe Parreno's Exhibition
Saturdays and Sundays, 15:00 - 15:30
As it is best to communicate with video art on a private and individual level, introductory talks will take place at the entrance to the exhibition. Within Russia, Parreno is an ‘alien visitor'; this talk provides a brief introduction to the artist, for those unfamiliar with his work.
Admission is free. Early arrival is recommended as seats are limited. Participants should meet at the information desk.
Individual tours are also available at any time at weekends.
