Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost (b.1962, Lieumeconu) Lives and works. Here a long list of museums and institu-tions. A line, interesting things, a comma, a line, an exhaustive list of residencies and prizes. A selection of solo projects including: a Deep See Blue Surrounding You in Venice, a Waiting Room with objects in Minneapolis, a New Museum for Grand dad in Milano, A tearoom for grand ma in Derry, a karaoke room in Brussels, a Prize for Turner, new octopus ink vodka bar for Gregor in Rotterdam, a travel agency for an Uncle in Frankfurt, a lobby for love among the artists in the Hague and Luzern... tea bags, and wet floors and clementines.
This coming year I would like as a group to focus on the situation that has been created over the past few months, how it has made us different - proximity, touch, smells, passing things to each over, knowledge and unwanted particules.
How to work with intimacy in this new situation. The future of one to one, our relationship the small, the self, recentring.
How the normes have changed, how quickly will society adapt and use this opportunity to imag-ine a new future.
Can we respond to the world in new ways, with new complexity, without one thing dominating the other but all in complete equal strength, in terms of culture, race, language, nature, time, smell, touch, vision, economy all as one and without hierarchies. Translation: sound as a taste as a smell as an intimate exchange with one another, especially with the new circum-stances. Ideally we would re learn, de-learn and re-learn together.
Working towards liquidity, melting into one another. Hospitality - hospitality now.
Practically for the first semester I would like to force ourselves to produce a piece a day around intimacy and acknowledging each other... Touch-ing the world with your extremities with out touch, a work of translation. Though translations of our many senses to bring up new conscious-ness, empathy.
Being invited this autumn as an artist to work on a show for the LaM in dialogue with its collection of “insider art” I would like the class to look at themselves within themselves, elaborate on the idea of object as relic, belief systems, when art is absolutely urgent when it is really a need for oneself and society.
n terms of a new creation during my time at Le Fresnoy, I would imagine myself developing a piece that will have a direct dialogue with the collection of the LaM, my personal history with the North of France, Tourcoing and Roubaix memories and fictional facts, in reference to my many grand fathers and grand mothers, migration, the world melting, liquifying into one another, possibly develop the “ Roubaix - Magique” sequences from the Deep See Bluefilm for the Venice pavilion in 2019, this sequence was shot with a magician who made tables levi-tate, inviting the locals to join him, this sequence was shot in rue de l’Alma in Roubaix. I would like to take the opportunity to re-connect with the locals, possibly make a piece together, projecting some narrative with them, mixing our histories.
Technically I imagine this will be developed into a new video mostly shot on a phone and a DMX activation of elements found in the film, escap-ing the images to become relics, furniture for the audience and a proof of the narrative. Grand-ma grand-dad, uncle and cousins with people I meet on the way, will be involved, I imagine it to be a family affair and a levitating experience... Keeping the magic of the Café de l’Opéra rue de l’Alma.
Laure Prouvost