Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
The Second Nature

In her diverse artistic practice, Camille Henrot (b. 1978) combines film, drawing, and sculpture. Taking inspiration from literature, mythology, cinema, anthropology, evolutionary biology, religion and the banality of everyday life, Henrot’s work acutely reconsiders the typologies of objects and established systems of knowledge.

Selected exhibitions: Days are Dogs, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017, solo); If Wishes Were Horses, Kunsthalle Wien (2017, solo); MCA Screens: Grosse Fatigue, MCA Chicago (2016, solo); China Overpop, YUZ museum, Shanghai (2016); The Future in Drag, Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2016); Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the collection, MoMA, New York (2015); Kino der Kunst, Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2015, solo); Une brève histoire de l’avenir, Louvre Museum, Paris (2015); The Kundalini Awakening, Gagosian Gallery, Athens (2015); Leiris & Co, The Centre Pompidou-Metz (2015); The Pale Fox, Westfälicher Kunstverein, Münster / Johann König Gallery, Berlin / Chisenhale Gallery, London (2015 / 2015 / 2014, solo); Grosse Fatigue, Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford / City Observatory & City Dome, Edinburg, Écosse / Tate Modern, London / la Sorbonne, Paris, France / Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham / Gucci Museo, Florence (2014, solo); City of Ys, NOMA – New Orleans Museum of Art (2013, solo); Is it possible to be a revolutionary and like flowers?, kamel mennour, Paris (2013, solo); Club Trouw, Muzeul Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2013); Perspectives, Louis Vuitton Cultural Space, Paris (2010, solo).

Her work has been exhibited at numerous notable international biennales in Montreal, Berlin, Sydney, Lyon, Venice and Montevideo.

Camille Henrot’s artistic practice combines film, drawing, and sculpture. Inspired by a variety of subjects such as literature, mythology, cinema, anthropology, biology, religion and everyday life, Henrot reconsiders the typologies of objects and established systems of knowledge.

The video Grosse Fatigue was created by using the collections from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, National Air and Space Museum, and National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. To recount the story of the creation of the universe, the video exhibits a myriad of images that pop up across a computer screen. By way of comparison and contrast, the work employs both the subject of the vastness of the universe and that of the Internet to imply the impossibility of creating a truly coherent system of unified knowledge.

Images:

1. Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), video, 13’, original music: Joakim, voice: Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh, text written in collaboration with Jacob Bromberg, producer: kamel mennour, Paris; with the additional support of: Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris, production: Silex Films, project conducted as part of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Program, Washington, D.C., special thanks to: the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, © ADAGP Camille Henrot, courtesy of: Camile Henrot, Silex Films and kamel mennour, Paris