Paris
Petit Palais
15 Dec → 9 May 2021
From Tue to Sun 10 am to 6 pm. Closed Mon. Nocturnal Fri until 9 pm for exhibitions.
To enter Laurence Aëgerter's first monographic exhibition in Paris is like going through the looking-glass. It is actually on a mirror, engraved with the formula "Here rather than over there", that the exhibition opens, to better introduce the themes of the double and evasion, dear to the multidisciplinary artist. Here, the French artist responds to the Petit Palais's invitation by offering the visitor a journey through the history of art. Touched by the museum's collections, she scatters her own works: photographs, tapestries, ceramics and in situ installations open up new fields of representation. Sculptures are adorned with a "Schutzmäntel" (protective mantle), silk-screened with perfumed inks, in reference to the mantle of the Virgin who protects the humble and the weak. One of its tapestries dialogues with Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt de Monet. A harp of the XVIIIth century cries glass tears, engraved with the names of lost people. By this very fact, Aëgerter questions the memory, the past time, the precariousness of the existence. Sensitive, the exhibition offers us another reading of the museum, filled with a wind of freedom.