The Bernier/Eliades Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition “mes transports” by Annette Messager on view on Wednesday 24th of April from 18:00 to 21:00 hrs.

“mes transports” is composed of multiple sculptures combining body parts, geometrical forms, animals and various objects which are wrapped in black mat foil. These elements are displayed on wooden trolleys cushioned by folded removal blankets. These transports are in essence as real as they are metaphorical: showing the transportation of goods, of love, of blood and joy.

“Blankets are used to protect them and to soften their journey whilst being transported. Some of them are playful, other sinister but together they create a dark humor. Even as separate entities, isolated on their own transports, there could be a dialogue between the artworks. Human body parts, animals, and grotesque characters regress to their own childhood.” Explains Annette Messager.

Scattered and motionless on the gallery floor, these floating islands are in a latent state of mobility giving rise to various scenarios: “They are all waiting. Have they just arrived? Are they about to leave? (…) Will they be dispersed? » such are the questions expressed by the artist whilst refusing to answer them, for the following reason: “I’m working like a sleep walker; sometimes I feel like a receiver, I’m receiving things, messages (I am a messenger…) and things happen”. There is a certain metaphor linked to the transport of artwork: will they be dispersed and separated from each other? We can retrace the idea of islands and ambiguous mobility through ‘Continents noirs. These islands seem to be waiting for something to arrive or happen, but instead of drifting, they are well anchored to their trolley on the ground. The color black makes the sculptures look identical, without age, it deprives them of any personal qualities: “This is us, humans, animals, all races, all types; young or old, beautiful or ugly, we cannot escape the wheel of time”. On the walls we can see some newer works of smaller size. Drawings that denounces sexism, racism and homophobia from a large part of our contemporary society. For the artist, the female body represents individual and collective freedom, it is filled with its desires and pleasures and with their own sexuality.

Annette Messager is a leading figure in the French and international art scene. She represented France at the 51st Venice Biennale, for which she received the Golden Lion and in 2016, she won the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award. Her work has been exhibited worldwide in the most prestigious museums: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art de New York (1995), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (1999), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2004), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2007), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2008); EMMA museum of modern Art, Espoo, Finland (2008); National Museum of Contemporary Art, Séoul, South-Korea 2008).

Groupshows:

Museo Colecçao Berardo, Lisbonne, Portugal (2009), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico (2010); Multimedia

Complex of Actual Arts, Moscow, Russia (2010); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2010); Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine (2010); Kunstmuseum Bern, Berne, Switzerland (2010); Museo Guggenheim de Arte Moderno y Contemporaneo, Bilbao, Spain (2011); Frost Art Museum, Miami, USA (2011); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France (2012); K21, Dusseldorf, Germany (2012); Helsinki Art Museum, Finland (2012); Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France (2012); Seattle Art Museum, USA (2013); Les Abattoirs de Toulouse, France (2013); Musée de l’Hospice de Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France (2014); Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2014) ; L’espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans- Sartoux, France (2015); Musée Jean-Lurçat et de la tapisserie contemporaine, Angers, France (2015); 6th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Niigata, Japan (2015); Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencià, Spain (2018).