Philippe Parreno

Following the co-curation of the exhibition .all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reggae at IMMA in 2006, Philippe Parreno returns with a major solo exhibition. An ambitious overview of Parreno’s work to date, the exhibition questions notions of time, reality and representation, as well as exhibition-making and performance. Comprising some 30 mixed-media works, it includes a number of works being shown in the Museum’s courtyard and grounds. Ranging from seminal films such as Credits, 1999, and The Boy from Mars, 2003, to installations such as Speech Bubbles, 1997, and The Trial of Pol Pot, 1998, the exhibition also includes recent commissions, including a conceptual Christmas tree. Parreno’s much-acclaimed film documentary Zidane, A 21st-Century Portrait, 2006, produced with Scottish artist Douglas Gordon on the French soccer star Zinedine Zidane, is also being shown.

Born in Oran, Algeria, in 1964, Philippe Parreno lives and works in Paris. As an artist and film-maker, he is renowned internationally for his diverse practice, which questions modes of exhibiting and the nature of images. He has collaborated with many artists including Jorge Pardo, Douglas Gordon, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Pierre Huyghe. Solo exhibitions include Suicide in Vermillion Sands, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, 2008; Philippe Parreno – Fade Away, Kunstverein München, Munich, 2004; Philippe Parreno – The Sky of the Seven Colors, Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, 2003, and Philippe Parreno – Alien Seasons, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2002. Group exhibitions include nospacewhatsoever, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2008; Airs de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2007; Liam Gillick + Philippe Parreno – Briannnnnn & Ferryyyyy, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2006, and No Ghost Just a Shell, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2005.

The exhibition is an international collaboration between Kunsthalle Zürich; Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Bard College, New York. Each venue will curate slightly different exhibitions in close dialogue with the artist.

Two publications accompany this exhibition – a comprehensive survey catalogue of Philippe Parreno’s work and its companion book – produced by Centre Pompidou Editions. The catalogue is designed by M/M and comprises texts by the curators Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA; Christine Macel, Curator, Centre Pompidou; Maria Lind, Director, Master of Arts programme in Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York. Also included are texts by the philosopher Simon Critchley and editor Charles-Arsène Henry. The second book is an echo of the first but is imagined by Parreno himself as a “Monster Book” illustrated by Johan Olander.

The exhibition is supported by L’Ambassade de France en Ireland.

Philippe Parreno