Philippe Parreno at Fondation Beyeler

Philippe Parreno‘s works occupy a poetic space between yearning and recollection. He experiments with shifts of perception and forms of exhibition that challenge the viewer to participate in surprising ways.

For his show at Fondation Beyeler, Parreno presents two new films displayed within a mise-enscène that guides the visitor through the entire exhibition space by means of a choreography of sound and images.

In the video piece Continuously Habitable Zones aka C.H.Z (2011), which forms the nucleus of the show, science and fiction intermerge. It was filmed in a dark, in fact completely black landscape. The film and associated compelling ink drawings is on view in the souterrain. The second film, Marilyn (2012), shown for the first time at Fondation Beyeler, is the portrait of a ghost. The film conjures up Marilyn Monroe in a phantasmagoric seance in a suite at the Hotel Waldorf Astoria in New York where she lived in the 1950s.

The films spread like a virus throughout the Fondation Beyeler. The virus is transmitted to the spectator, but after a while it loses its virulence and ends up killing off itself. At the museum entrance visitors receive a DVD containing both films so that they can carry the exhibition out of the museum space. On the DVD the two films feature a musical soundtrack by Arto Lindsay.

Two Marquees designate the room where the films are screened. These works resemble the type of illuminated canopies that feature on theaters and movie halls. The two Marquees, created specifically for Fondation Beyeler, are made of steel, mirrors, and light bulbs and appear like luminous extensions of Renzo Piano’s architecture.

Finally, two sound installations give the spectator the impression that the museum is coming to life in the wake of Marilyn and Continuously Habitable Zones aka C.H.Z.

Philippe Parreno was born in 1964 in Oran, Algeria. He lives in Paris.

The exhibition is curated by Sam Keller and Michiko Kono.