Gregor Schneider / Pilar Albarracin / Marie Maillard

Gregor Schneider, süßer Duft

From the age of 16, Gregor Schneider (born in Rheydt in 1969) has been transforming the interior of the home he inherited from his father in the small town of Rheydt, Germany. A work in progress until 2007, he has constantly added new rooms, separated others, removed mod-cons, and blocked up windows, adding fake ones in their place. The result is a labyrinthine structure which he has entitled Haus u r (House u r). Occasionally, visitors are invited to spend the night there and share his personal space.

Architecture is again central to Gregor Schneider's exhibition at la maison rouge for which he has created a specific installation. He invites visitors to follow a sweet fragrance (süßer Duft) that take them to the other side of the walls, leaving behind the white exhibition room for dark parallel spaces where they discover who inhabits them, who haunts them, and are confronted with their own fear of the unknown.

Pilar Albarracin, mortal cadencia

Her Andalusian cultural heritage and status as a woman in Spanish society are central to the work of Pilar Albarracín (born in Seville in 1968, lives and works in Madrid).

Pilar Albarracín works with photography, sculpture and installation although performance remains her preferred medium. She plays the part of gypsy, peasant girl, prostitute, emigrant or housewife, producing a work which can, as Rosa Martínez writes, be interpreted as "a metaphor for insubordination."

For her first solo exhibition in France, Pilar Albarracín has chosen to show a large installation, Techo de Ofrendas, and a series of videos including La Cabra, Lunares and Prohibido el Cante. They combine the ardent emotion of flamenco with the ritual of the bullfight, sacrifice and death.

Marie Maillard, wall 0208 For her project in the patio at la maison rouge, Marie Maillard revisits the venue's past incarnation as a factory built around a red house. A transitional space, visible before entering the exhibition rooms, this inner courtyard lets in the daylight while its red brick recalls the building's former function. Marie Maillard has reproduced it, on a smaller scale, in a work that she places in the centre of the patio. This doubling-up, added to the inversion of materials (glass and brick), causes viewers to lose their bearings. The enclosed space is fragmented, opening up to a multitude of dimensions. Wall 0208 thus breaks down the strict separation between real and virtual, concrete and imaginary. Despite its small size, it forms a maze which the viewer can mentally trace, like a projection area, both intimate and inaccessible, secret and familiar.

Fabien Danesi

Gregor Schneider: Süßer Duft
Pilar Albarracin: mortal cadencia
Marie Maillard: wall 0208