Emmanuelle Lainé, Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies

Film still from "Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies", Emmanuelle Lainé, 2017. Commissioned by Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research. Courtesy FRALIB SCOP-TI.

Opening on March 7, 2017 from 6 pm to 9 pm

Curated by Mélanie Bouteloup

Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research pre­sents a solo exhi­bi­tion by Emmanuelle Lainé. With Incremental Self, the French artist takes over the refur­bished spaces of Bétonsalon by means of a mon­u­mental instal­la­tion inte­grating a multi-screen film with an accu­mu­la­tion of objects and pieces of fur­ni­ture devi­ated from their orig­inal con­text.

Our lives are fragile and pre­car­ious. Yet they are mul­tiple, col­lec­tive, and uncon­trol­lable. This is what artist Emmanuelle Lainé man­i­fests in her exhi­bi­tion Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies.

The bodies we observe in her filmic instal­la­tion—s­tu­dents, retired artists, work­er­s—are in tran­si­tional places where dif­ferent sorts of exchanges are taking place. They are evolving in spaces of nego­ti­a­tion where suc­ces­sive layers of iden­tity are being per­formed in inter­ac­tion with given eco­nomic, sen­sible, and even sym­bolic facts and objects.
What should we do with of all these sto­ries, anec­dotes, and mem­o­ries told by each and every one of us? How to make these nar­ra­tives biting? To exhibit one­self is to demon­strate a form of resis­tance, while recon­necting with one’s own fragility.
With Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies, we are inclined to explore the fol­lowing ques­tion raised by philoso­pher Rosi Braidotti: “How [do we] find ade­quate the­o­ret­ical and imag­i­nary rep­re­sen­ta­tions for our lived con­di­tions and how [do we] exper­i­ment together with alter­na­tive forms of posthuman sub­jec­tivity [1]?”

Emmanuelle Lainé’s exhi­bi­tion is a demon­stra­tion of one’s taking shape, where humans and objects influ­ence each other, assem­bling, over­lap­ping, and mixing indis­cernibly. Each per­me­ates the other until con­science arises in their trem­bling selves, thus becoming trans­parent. Emmanuelle Lainé’s trans­parent bodies mate­ri­alize our shifting, off-center, frag­mented, and mul­tiple iden­ti­ties. Even more, trans­parent bodies are con­ta­gious, con­tam­i­nating each other.

Incremental Self will unfold at Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research through a wide array of public pro­grams. Discussions and col­lec­tive actions will pro­gres­sively accu­mu­late within Emmanuelle Lainé’s instal­la­tion, which will evolve throughout the exhi­bi­tion.

Find out the pro­ject of Emmanuelle Lainé devel­oped in the frame­work of her res­i­dency at the FNAGP which took place from October 17 to 22 2016.

About Emmanuelle Lainé

Emmanuelle Lainé (born in 1973 in Paris) lives and works in Marseille. She grad­u­ated from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Elaborating on the speci­fici­ties of each exhi­bi­tion venue, Emmanuelle Lainé uses her host insti­tu­tions’ fur­ni­ture and archi­tec­tural fea­tures to provide a “method­ology of places” that is an inter­face between spaces, works and their audi­ence. Her prac­tice con­sists in mon­u­mental in-situ instal­la­tions that blur dis­tinc­tions between the dif­ferent media she uses. This pro­cess allows her to create a com­plex cog­ni­tive space where sev­eral tem­po­ral­i­ties coexist, making sense only through the eye of the beholder, con­sid­ered as the priv­i­leged agent of the exhi­bi­tion.

She recently exhib­ited her works at the Palais de Tokyo (2017, 2014) and at Villa Vassilieff (2016) in Paris, at the Lyon Biennale (2015), at the GLstrand, (Copenhagen, 2015), at the Stereo Gallery (Warsaw, 2015), at the ICA Singapore (2015), at the Swiss Cultural Institute (Rome, 2014) and at La Loge Bruxelles (2013). Her works were also shown in per­sonal exhi­bi­tions hosted by the Villa Arson (2016), the Galerie Motinternational (Bruxelles, 2015), IFAL (Mexico, 2015), the foun­da­tion Ricard (2014) and C-o-m-p-o-s-i-t-e (Brussels, 2014).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank:

Emmanuelle Lainé, Benjamin Valenza, Mathieu Touren, Lény Lecointre, David Perreard.
The staff mem­bers of Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research.

The Académie vivante team, and specif­i­cally: Jonathan Weitzman and stu­dents from the European Masters in Genetics at Paris-Diderot University.

The staff mem­bers and res­i­dents of the Maison Nationale des Artistes and FNAGP, and specif­i­cally: Laurence Maynier, Caroline Cournède, Seval Ozmen
Arlette Chapuis, Lise Déramond, Hélène Peguet, Claude Grisard.

The employees of SCOP-TI, Société Coopérative Ouvrière Provençale de Thés et Infusions, and specif­i­cally: Gérard Cazorla.

The Chemistry depart­ment at Paris-Diderot University and specif­i­cally: Guillaume Thoraval, glass blower.

Staff mem­bers of the Paris-Diderot University and specif­i­cally: François Montarras, Alexandre Ienibace, Stéphane Villain.

Our part­ners: Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso, Paris-Diderot University, Epigenetics and Cell Fate Unit, Pernod Ricard, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques.
And each and every one who sup­ported us in the pro­duc­tion of Incremental Self: Transparent Bodies: Jochen Dehn, DOC, LABOR ZERO LABOR, Palais de Tokyo.
We would also like to extend our grat­i­tude to the dif­ferent teams who worked on the ren­o­va­tion of Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research: NeM / Niney et Marca Architectes, Paul de Coudenhove, Ciments Calcia, every con­struc­tion worker team member, and Vittorio Cavallini / Vano Alto for designing the wel­come desk.

Partners

Exhibition part­ners
Epigenetics and Cell Fate Unit (UMR7216 Paris Diderot University), Paris-Diderot University, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso, and Pernod Ricard.

Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research is sup­ported by the City of Paris, the Paris Diderot University – Paris 7, the Île-de-France Regional Board of Cultural Affairs – Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Île-de-France Region and Leroy Merlin – Quai d’Ivry.
The Académie vivante is sup­ported by the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso.
Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research is a member of Tram, réseau art con­tem­po­rain Paris / Île-de-France and of d.c.a / asso­ci­a­tion française de développe­ment des cen­tres d’art.

Villa Vassilieff receives sup­port from public and pri­vate part­ners first and fore­most from the City of Paris, the Île-de-France Region and Pernod Ricard, its lead sponsor. Villa Vassilieff also develops part­ner­ships with the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, the Société des Auteurs dans les Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, the Collège d’études mon­di­ales of the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, and the Goethe Institut.