Gillian Wearing - Sous influence

Born in 1933 in Birmingham, Gillian Wearing lives and works in London. For this first solo institutional show in Paris, Gillian Wearing proposes a journey through seven recent works, indeed previously unexhibited, the most of which made in the last two years.

Opening with Self Portrait, the masked self-portrait of the artist, and concluding with another mask - that of death- Fell asleep, the artist marks out the procedures - often violent and painful-, of the unveiling of the intimate, of wounds and of inhibitions. These are translated through different video installations, in the form of personal confessions where the individual delivers a buried secret, hidden deep down:  - Trauma, recital of traumas that took place during childhood - Prelude, witness of helplessness in front of the death of a close one.

These procedures can equally give place to collective set ups of real situations, observed by the artist and reconstructed in the studio :  - Drunk : film about a community of alcoholics

Or to scenes of daily life - crisis of hysteria, passionate loves- interpreted by actors : - I Love You, Sacha and Mum.

In all cases, the individual is seized in his moments of exteriorisation free reign is left to the raw expression of his emotions, of his instincts - notably the instinct of survival - and to the irrational forces that inhabit him.

The exhibition follows the rhythm of a dramatic trilogy, Prelude, Drunk, Fell asleep and is the culmination of a collaboration between the artist and a group of alcoholics from south London that she followed during two years. The trilogy forms the three sequences of the one film - from the first shot taken of them, Prelude, to Fell Asleep, the final homage and farewell scene.

Gillian Wearing's approach, confounded by a profound sympathy and connivance with these people "under influence", invites us to lift off the invisible mask of inhibition.

A bilingual catalogue is published on the occasion of this exhibition, comprising a preface by Laurence Bossé and texts by Jean-Christophe Royoux Angéline Scherf. and Jean-Charles Masséra Co-edition Paris-Musées-Les Amis du Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Number of illustrations: 18 colour, 14 b/w, Number of pages: 76. Pressetext

Gillian Wearing - Sous influence
Kuratoren: Laurence Bossé and Angéline Scherf