Anne Imhof performances at Parisian Palais de Tokyo in October 2021

German born Anne Imhof and her CORE team will perform at Palais de Tokyo in Acte 2 of Natures Mortes, in the premises marked by Act 1, inaugrated on May 21, 2021

Anne Imhof explains : “During the performances, the different rooms become a sort of heterotopia, a space of art that blends with a space of dreaming, where everything is transformed into décor and staging.”

1 Octobre 2021 - 23:00

Act 1, Natures Mortes

Anne Imhof, Natures Mortes, 2021 Photography : Nadine Fraczkowski Courtesy of the artist and Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Anne Imhof took over the entirety of Palais de Tokyo for the creation of Act 1, Natures Mortes, her polyphonic, total work of art that fuses space, music, painting, and her own works as well as those of some thirty guest artists. Curated by Emma Lavoigne and Vittorio Mattarrese, with music by Eliza Douglas, Anne Imhof, famed for her Opera Faust, captures the pulsations of the fleeting cycle of life and the burning intensity of the present.

Born in 1978 in Giessen, the artist invites us to wander through the interval between the living and the non-living, between shadow and light, past and present, immobility and action, intensity and disillusionment.

The performative dimension of the oeuvre of Anne Imhof runs throughout the exhibition - works of art, sound pieces, architecture and the bodies present within it - enters into symbiosis with the space itself. Emptied of human presence and devoid of any spectacle, the first act of the exhibition offers a negative portrait of absent bodies and the traces of their presence, making their voices echo endlessly throughout the space.

Core Team of close collaborators

Since 2012, Anne Imhof has surrounded herself with a group of close collaborators, in particular Eliza Douglas, a number of whose paintings are presented in the exhibition. Imhof and Douglas also jointly composed the sound and performance works in the exhibition.

The core team of collaborators come from various backgrounds, their diversity allowing for each new piece to be approached from multiple perspectives. Whether dancers, models, philosophers, musicians, or composers, each collaborator brings to the work their own world and their own aesthetic. Together, they rehearse the sequences of movements, each of which is planned down to the slightest detail, and each of which allows for their personalities and sensibilities to be brought together within a framework that makes possible an ongoing dialogue with Imhof.

Over the course of the performance, the artist sends instructions via WhatsApp to her group of performers, including Eliza Douglas, Frances Chiaverini, Josh Johnson and Mickey Mahar, allowing them to adapt to the dynamics of the spectators present, who in turn become part of the constructed image.

Performances of Natures Mortes, Act 2

Performances of Natures Mortes Act 2 by the Core Team will take place on:
14 – 18 October and 21 – 24 October from 6pm until 10 pm
Reservations can be made on palaisdetokyo.com.

In addition, still to be confirmed, there will be guest performances by :

Precious Okoyomon on Wednesday 6 October
Precious Okoyomon blends her powerful poetry with the architecture of Natures Mortes in a performative intervention whose components will become relics that will permanently integrate the exhibition.

And Paul B. Preciado’s text, «After Beauty», which features in the Natures Mortes edition of the Magazine du Palais de Tokyo, will be performed in the exhibition spaces by the author and by members of the core team.

PALAIS DE TOKYO

13, avenue du Président Wilson, 75 116 Paris
HOURS : Palais de Tokyo is open every day except Tuesdays, from midday to midnight - Reservations at palaisdetokyo.com
HOW TO GET THERE
Métro : Ligne 9, Iéna and Alma Marceau
Stations Bus : Lignes 32, 42, 63, 72, 80, 82, 92
RER : Ligne C, Pont de l’Alma station
Vélib’ : Vélib’ stations next to Palais de Tokyo
n° 16007 : 4, rue de Longchamp
n° 8046 : 2, rue Marceau
n° 7023 : Quai Branly