Philippe Parreno

Parreno was born in Oran, in Algeria. From 1983 until 1988, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Grenoble and at the Institute des hautes études en arts plastiques at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris from 1988 until 1989.

Philippe Parreno at Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto.

Parreno has exhibited his works since the early 1990s and has been critically acclaimed ever since then. Parreno has worked collaboratively with other artists in all manner of media throughout his career.[1]

The concept of exhibitions and exhibition-making has been a central aspect for Parreno. For the artist, the exhibition is not a single work of art but a medium that offers endless possibility. Therefore, his exhibitions are mostly site-specific, as Parreno discloses in an interview for ArtReview: "What I generally do is so specific to the place that will hold the exhibition. I don't 'travel' shows. I find it impossible."[3]

Apart from his extended concept of exhibitions, Parreno's artworks are concerned with the transformation of art genres, where is great diversity of used media plays a significant role.[4]

Notable exhibitions and works

Anywhen. At Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London 2016.

Parreno has used his specific conception of exhibitions in his 2013 exhibition Anywhere, Anywhere Out Of The World[5] where he radically transformed the monumental space of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Parreno turned the building itself into a living constantly evolving organism using sound, image and performance to guide the visitor on a journey through his works, both old and new. The exhibition was orchestrated along the lines of a dramatic composition where the spectral presence of objects, music, lights, and films guide and manipulated the visitor's experience transforming this monologue into a polyphony.

In Dancing around the Bride [6] in 2012 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art curated by Carlos Basualdo in collaboration with Erica F. Battle, Parreno acted as a metteur-en-scène (orchestrator), using the artworks of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp to invoke time and motion.

Sound was a key element in the 2013 exhibition, The Bride and The Bachelors[7], at the Barbican, London. The varied sequence of Parreno's subtle orchestration of live and pre-recorded sound from the works of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp was arranged in concert with live dance performances, enabling the exhibition to change over time.

During Art Basel, 2012, Parreno presented two major new works at Fondation Beyeler – Marilyn (2012) and C.H.Z. (Continuously Habitable Zones) (2011).[8] Marilyn was subsequently shown at Parreno's first solo exhibition in Russia at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow [9] and at the 55th Venice Biennale at François Pinault's museum, Palazzo Grassi.

H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS, Parreno's first major U.S. exhibition, ran from June until August 2015 within the monumental interior of Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall, New York and transformed the traditional exhibition experience through an interplay of film, sculpture, and the spectral presence of sound and light. Shortly after, in October 2015 until February 2016, Parreno presented Hypothesis, at HangarBicocca in Milan, his first survey exhibition in Italy. The show, curated by Andrea Lissoni, was inhabited by a series of key pieces together with recent works and music according to a mise en scène devised by Parreno.

In October 2016 [until April 2017] Parreno undertook the Hyundai Commission for the Turbine Hall at London's Tate Modern.[10] Entitled Anywhen [11], it was curated by Tate's Andrea Lissoni, Senior Curator, International Art (Film), with Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Assistant Curator, it was the second annual Hyundai Commission, a series of site-specific works created for the Turbine Hall [12] by renowned international artists. In December 2016 - March 2017 Parreno presented Thenabouts at ACMI in Melbourne, a retrospective of his films.

In 2017 from 2 February - 7 May, Parreno exhibited A Time Coloured Space at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto. Taking over the entire museum it featured some of Parreno's most well-known works, and new works for the exhibition. Later that year, from 7 July - 17 September 2017 at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, Parreno presented Synchronicity.[13]. From October 2017 - February 2018 Philippe Parreno: La levadura y el anfitrión (The Yeast and The Host) [14] was at Museo Jumex, Mexico City.[15][16]

Collaboration is integral to Parreno's work. In June 2006, Universal released a feature-length documentary directed by Parreno and Scottish artist Douglas Gordon entitled Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which premiered out of competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Using 17 cameras, this unique football film follows legendary French midfielder Zinedine Zidane throughout an entire Real Madrid vs Villarreal match in front of 80,000 fans at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Two of the cameras were borrowed from the U.S. army and have the largest zoom available. The film tracks Zidane's every move on and off the ball, in the thick of the action. Subtitles includes the player's thoughts and observations on his playing career. The motion unfolds in a flow accentuated by an emotive original score by Scottish rock band, Mogwai.

In 2007 Parreno directed and co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist, a group exhibition, Il Tempo del Postino (Postman Time)[17] for the Manchester International Festival, which then showed at Art Basel, 2009. More than fifteen artists collaborated in this project including Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney & Jonathan Bepler, Tacita Dean, Trisha Donnelly, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Thomas Demand, and Peter Fischli / David Weiss.

In 2012 Parreno collaborated with artist Liam Gillick on To the Moon via the Beach [18]. Shown at The Amphitheatre in Arles, this was a piece concerning work, production, and change, with the title reflecting its shifting nature and the promise of a journey. On entering the exhibition, visitors encountered an area covered in tons of sand. Over four days, this ‘beach’ area was transformed by sand sculptors into a moonscape, which formed a constantly changing backdrop to a series of 22 artists’ projects. The whole process was made visible with equal importance placed upon the production, presentation, and exchange of ideas.

In 2014 Parreno was involved in a unique collaboration with a number of artists and curators, including Tino Sehgal, Liam Gillick, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza, and Pierre Boulez, for which he was also a curator. The exhibition Solaris Chronicles[19] at the LUMA Foundation Arles Campus was presented in two phases and examined, through a series of artistic interventions and projects, the creative vision of architect Frank Gehry. Centred on large-scale models of many of Gehry's seminal works, the constantly shifting mise-en-scène created by the artists formed a bridge between art and architecture, transforming the usual relationship and collaborative processes between the two practices.

In 2019, Parreno, Arca and Nicolas Becker used a generative music technology called Bronze to create a new work which will occupy the lobby of MoMA in New York for two years. 'Echo' is a site-specific work involving sound, light and animated physical objects. Described by the artist as an auto-poetic system, the work will exist in the space, responding to itself and its surroundings endlessly.

• Anywhen (film), 2016[20]

• Li Yan (film), 2016[21]

• The Crowd (film), 2015[22]

2018

Philippe Parreno: La levadura y el anfitrión (The Yeast and The Host), Museo Jumex, Mexico City,[14] - Until 11 February 2018

2017

Philippe Parreno: Synchronicity, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai[13] - 7 July - 17 September 2017

Philippe Parreno: A Time Coloured Space, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal,[23] - 3 February - 7 May 2017

2016

Philippe Parreno: Thenabouts, ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), Melbourne, Australia[24] - 6 December 2016 - 13 March 2017

Philippe Parreno: Anywhen, the 2016 Hyundai Commission for the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London[25] - 4 October 2016 - 2 April 2017

2015

Hypothesis, HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy[26] - 22 October 2015 - 14 February 2016

H {N} Y P N {Y} OSIS, Park Avenue Armory, New York, USA[27] - 11 June 2015 - 2 August 2015

2013

Anywhere, Anywhere Out of the World, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France[28] - 23 October 2014 - 12 January 2014

Philippe Parreno, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia[29]

2012

Philippe Parreno, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland[30]

2010

Philippe Parreno, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK[31]

Philippe Parreno, CCS Bard, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA[32]

From November 5 Until They Fall Down, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy[33]

2009

November, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland[34]

May, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland[35]

8 Juin 1968, Centre Pompidou - Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France[36]

57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 13 May – 26 November 2017[37]

2016

The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), 11th Gwangju Biennale, Korea[38]

2015

All The World's Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Venice[39]

2014

Lucas Burckhardt and Cedric Price - A stroll through a fun palace curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pavilion of Switzerland, 14th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale de Venezia, Venice, Italy[40]

Solaris Chronicles[41], LUMA Foundation, Arles, France

2013

Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London, UK[42]

The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns curated by Carlos Basualdo, Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, London, UK[7]

2012

Dancing around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, and Duchamp curated by Carlos Basualdo in collaboration with Erica F. Battle, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA[6]

2011

ILLUMinations, 54th Venice Biennale, 2011, Venice, Italy[43]

Art of Communication: Anri Sala, Yang Ah Ham, Philippe Parreno, Jorge Pardo, National Museum of Contemporary Art (South Korea)[44]

2008

theanyspacewhatever, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA[45]

Philippe Parreno is represented by Pilar Corrias Gallery[46]; Air de Paris, Paris [47]; Esther Schipper Gallery, Berlin [48]; Barbara Gladstone, New York [49]; and 1301 PE, Los Angeles [50].

His work is included in the collections of many institutions such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, France; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Walker Art Center (USA); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; the Guggenheim Museum New York, USA; and Tate Modern, London.[51]