Philippe Parreno and Daniel Buren cast spectral shadows in Paris
Inaugurating Kamel Mennour’s fifth gallery space, designed by Pierre Yovanovitch, the French artists unveil their first joint exhibition, and it raises more questions than answers
![Daniel Buren Philippe Parreno exhibition view](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3oRijk6xmRn35DS8bWnajm-415-80.jpg)
Shards of fluorescent light stream onto the gallery floor, mirrored pillars trap colours in a spectral haze. Daniel Buren and Philippe Parreno's ‘Simultanément, travaux in situ et en mouvement’ is a show that leaves more to the imagination than most.
The exhibition is a fusion of forms and creative minds: individual works by each artist have been connected to form one installation with underlying themes of automation, uncertainty, and inconclusiveness. It investigates, as Parreno describes, ‘the way things appear and disappear, which is the definition of a ghost or indeed any form that manifests itself.’
Here, the new space becomes as much a part of the work as the art itself. The 600 sq m gallery on Paris’ rue du Pont de Lodi is Kamel Mennour’s fifth and marks its third collaboration with interior designer – and Wallpaper* Designer of the Year 2019 – Pierre Yovanovitch. ‘When I saw the new Kamel Mennour gallery site, it reminded me of a cloister with its row of windows and its succession of posts’, says Yovanovitch. ‘After doing some research about the location, we wanted to maintain the building’s original character while emphasising its volume.’
As well as a dialogue between the artists’ work, the site-specific installation is also in deep conversation with the space. Each window is covered in a vibrantly-coloured film, which obscures the view to the outside world and drenches the gallery with rhythmic, intoxicating fragments of pink, blue and yellow.
‘The space opens and closes to the rhythm of a form that is also trying to exist, to appear within a gaze, to manifest itself. A space undergoing the time of its own unveiling. A stochastic space, one given up to chance, made up of glimmers and events’, says Parreno. ‘Everything is breath and movement in this place that is never really a place since it is endlessly forming and deforming itself.’
INFORMATION
’Simultanément travaux in situ et en mouvement’, until 27 February 2021. kamelmennour.com
ADDRESS
Kamel Mennour
5 rue du Pont de Lodi
75006 Paris
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
‘Who has not dreamed of seeing what the eye cannot grasp?’: Rencontres d’Arles comes to the south of France
Les Rencontres d’Arles 2024 presents over 40 exhibitions and nearly 200 artists, and includes the latest iteration of the BMW Art Makers programme
By Sophie Gladstone Published
-
Matthew Barney draws on a sporting horror history with video installation ‘Secondary’
Matthew Barney revisits a haunting memory of violence and spectacle in his first institutional show in Paris in over a decade
By Hili Perlson Published
-
Nicole Eisenman explores the dimensions of sculpture and painting at Hauser & Wirth Paris
Nicole Eisenman presents ‘with, and, of, on Sculpture’, her first retrospective at Hauser & Wirth Paris drawing inspiration from political challengers to ABBA
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Van Gogh Foundation celebrates ten years with a shape-shifting drone display and The Starry Night
The Van Gogh Foundation presents ‘Van Gogh and the Stars’, anchored by La Nuit Etoilée, which explores representations of the night sky, and the 19th-century fascination with the cosmos
By Amy Serafin Published
-
Marisa Merz’s unseen works at LaM, Lille, have a uniquely feminine spirit
Marisa Merz’s retrospective at LaM, Lille, is a rare showcase of her work, pursuing life’s most fragile, transient details
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Josèfa Ntjam reveals mythical sculptures for her LVMH Métiers d’Art artist residency
LVMH Métiers d’Art presents ‘Une cosmogonie d’océans’, celebrating Josèfa Ntjam’s artistic residence
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Damien Hirst takes over Château La Coste
Damien Hirst’s ‘The Light That Shines’ at Château La Coste includes new and existing work, and takes over the entire 500-acre estate in Provence
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Ludovic Nkoth’s vibrant paintings reflect on migration
Cameroon-born, New York-based Ludovic Nkoth uses acrylic paint to strike a balance between abstraction and figuration
By Ugonna-Ora Owoh Published