• Judith Hopf - Énergies
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    Judith Hopf - Énergies

    Exhibition from 22nd September to 11th December 2022
    An exhi­bi­tion at Bétonsalon - Centre for Art and Research and at Le Plateau, Frac Île-de-France, Paris

    Opening at Le Plateau: Wednesday 21st September, 6-9pm
    Opening at Bétonsalon: Thursday 22nd September, 4-9pm.

    Curators: François Aubart, Xavier Franceschi, Émilie Renard

    Bétonsalon is part­nering with Le Plateau, Frac Île-de-France to host a two-part exhi­bi­tion by Judith Hopf.
    Since the 2000s, the German artist has been making sculp­tures and films fuelled by her reflec­tions on the rela­tion­ships that human beings have with tech­nology. For this first mono­graphic exhi­bi­tion in France, Judith Hopf unites existing and pre­vi­ously unseen works. Some of them res­onate from one exhi­bi­tion to the other. Its title, Énergies, refers to what fuels each of our everyday elec­trical appli­ances, viewed from both a tech­nical and philo­soph­ical per­spec­tive.

    While at Le Plateau, the works revolve around the trans­for­ma­tion of the land­scape into a source of energy, it is more a ques­tion of its con­sump­tion at Bétonsalon. A sculp­ture cre­ated for the exhi­bi­tion rep­re­sents a light­ning bolt, a nat­ural explo­sion that high­lights the origin of elec­tricity, its power and danger. Its use is at the heart of Énergies, where sculp­tures and films sug­gest a world depen­dent on elec­tricity con­sumed without con­sid­er­a­tion for the terms of its pro­duc­tion. We dis­cover the Phone Users, human fig­ures busy looking at their tele­phones. Absorbed in the con­tem­pla­tion of their screens, they seem cut o from their imme­diate envi­ron­ment, which is com­prised of over­sized apple peel sculp­tures.

    Judith Hopf’s work is full of the con­tra­dic­tions that per­vade our daily lives and which she brings to light in all their strangeness. The numerous inver­sions and shifts that she brings into play in her work, by rep­re­senting scenes that are so familiar that they become unusual, even ironic, are an invi­ta­tion to think of alter­na­tives, to see dif­fer­ently rather than to con­sume more and more quickly. Moreover, Énergies reminds us that in this age of video­con­fer­encing, large quan­ti­ties of elec­tricity and human energy are needed to set up exhi­bi­tions. The Phone Users are a metaphor for this, pre­suming that they try to reach each other between the two exhi­bi­tions, and that they try to com­mu­ni­cate to the extent of announcing to each other: « There’s no net­work”.

    This exhi­bi­tion in two parts is co-pro­duced with Le Plateau, Frac Île-de-France and is sup­ported by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, and the gal­leries Deborah Schamoni, Munich and kauf­mann repetto, Milan and New York.

    Xavier Franceschi is the director of Frac Île-de-France.
    François Aubart is an inde­pen­dent curator, pub­lisher (Même pas l’hiver) and teaches at the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC).


    Judith Hopf, Rest (Apple Peel 1), 2021.
     
    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf. Photo: Pierre Antoine


    Judith Hopf, Phone User 5, 2021 and Rain, 2022.
     
    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf. Photo: Pierre Antoine


    Judith Hopf, Lightning, 2022.
     
    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf. Photo: Aurélien Mole


    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf.


    Judith Hopf, Phone User 5, 2021 and Rain, 2022.
     
    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf. Photo: Aurélien Mole


    Judith Hopf, Phone User 4, 2021 and Rest (Apple Peel 5), 2021.
     
    View from the exhibition Énergies by Judith Hopf, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2022. Courtesy from the artist and Deborah Schamoni © Adagp, Paris, 2022 / Judith Hopf. Photo: Pierre Antoine