Exceptional closing at 5 pm on Sunday, November 28
The work of the artist Leonor Antunes takes its point of departure in a history of modernity of which she privileges the shadowy zones, those in particular where many women designers, architects or artists have been relegated. In the exceptional settings of the Chapelle des petits Augustins at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Maison André Bloc in Meudon, various figures will emerge: the Japanese Michiko Yamawaki, a resident of the Bauhaus (1930-1932), and Charlotte Perriand, with works produced during her stays in Japan (1940-1942, 1953-1955). A new set of ceramic sculptures and suspensions placed in the center of the nave will dialogue with the collections of casts, remnants of the former museum of French monuments.
This exhibition is produced by the Festival d'Automne, in collaboration with the Beaux-Arts de Paris. With the support of the Gulbenkian Foundation - Delegation in France. With the support of the Marian Goodman gallery (Paris) and the support of the Air de Paris gallery (Paris).
Born in 1972 in Lisbon, Leonor Antunes lives and works in Berlin. She understands her work as a crossbreeding between vernacular processes and the cultural heritage of modernism. Her work often refers, through a subtle detour, a divergence, a shift, to the current status of this heritage and avant-garde, to its specific geometric forms, patterns and structures designed by architects and designers of the early 20th century.
His sculptures are designed and installed in response to a context in which architecture and history, but also the physical experience of the place, intervene. Her work is informed by her research into architectural and design figures such as architects Eileen Gray (1878-1976), Egle Trincanato (1910-1998) and Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978), designers Anni Albers (1899-1994) and Clara Porset (1895-1981) or artists Lygia Clark and Mary Martin (1907-1969). Leonor Antunes transposes the forms, motifs and dimensions characteristic of their work into materials and textures such as rope, wood, cork, leather or brass, employing a sculptural vocabulary inspired by artisanal techniques and skills.
She has had solo exhibitions at MUDAM - Musée d'Art Contemporain du Luxembourg (2020), MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2019), Museo Tamayo in Mexico City (2018), Whitechapel Gallery in London (2017), Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm (2017), CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux (2016), New Museum in New York (2015) and Kunsthalle Basel (2013). In 2019, she will represent Portugal at the 58th Venice Biennale. She participated in the 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018), the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and the 8th Berlin Biennale (2014). She was awarded the Zurich Art Prize in 2019. Her works are held in public collections such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Serralves Foundation in Porto.
Around the exhibition
Thursday, October 14 at 5:00 pm - interview with Leonor Antunes conducted by Alain Berland, head of cultural programming, and Thierry Leviez, head of exhibitions at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
The second part of the exhibition can be visited from September 18 to November 27, 2021
Villa Bloc / Meudon 12 rue du Bel-Air, 92190 Meudon
Free admission upon reservation
According to the regulation in force since July 21st, you will be asked to show a health pass or a proof of negative RT-PCR or antigenic test less than 72 hours old at the time of the control. Wearing a mask is mandatory.
© Bruno Lopes
© Bruno Lopes
