Pierrick Sorin
Une vie bien remplie
Associated curators: Corinne Bocquet and Caroline Andrieux
June 16–August 28 ,2011
Opening:
June 16 from 5pm to 10pm
Darling Foundry, visual arts centre
www.fonderiedarling.org
745 Ottawa street
Montreal, QC
H3C 1R8
514.392.1554 / info [at] fonderiedarling.org
Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday 12–7 pm, Thursday until 10 pm.
The Darling Foundry is proud to present Une vie bien remplie, a solo exhibition surveying the work of French video artist Pierrick Sorin.
Pierrick Sorin became known at the end of the 1980s for his “auto-filmages,” short films or videos dealing with daily life. In these burlesque skits, tragi-comic in tone, Sorin plays an anti-hero whose pathetic existence seems to be but a succession of insignificant gestures and self-criticisms. By saturating visual space with representations of himself, he puts into question an alienating system, centered on one’s own person, that leaves little room for difference, as well as questioning art as a privileged mode of being. In the main installation, Une vie bien remplie, a constellation of images of the artist in his daily actions (“getting up,” “brushing his teeth,” “blowing his nose”…) invades the large hall of the Darling Foundry, in whose background two gigantic self-portraits merge on the brick wall.
Of the different media used by the artist—installations, sculptures, videos, performance—almost all are present in the exhibition: two short films, Nantes, Projets d’artistes (2000) and C’est bien mignon tout ça (1993); two optical theatres, a kind of sculpture animated by a video projection, including the famous Tourne-disque commissioned from the artist by Robert Lepage, and the Aquarium aux danseuses. One of his latest creations, the performance 22h13, which he directs but does not act in, consists in a montage put together from shots of the show.
Pierrick Sorin is a major figure of the French art scene. In his hey-day in the 1980s and 1990s, he represented France at the Venice Biennale, had a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and was represented by the Barbara Gladstone Gallery of New York. His works echoed an era’s technology, and as he turned more and more to live performances, his name came up less often in visual arts circles. Pierrick Sorin has come back in force over the last few years, with a great retrospective at the Lieu Unique in Nantes in 2010, at 104 in Paris, the show 22h13′ on a world tour, and another retrospective that has just opened at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (MAMBA) in Argentina.
The Darling Foundry is an avant-garde visual arts centre that supports the creation, production and promotion of emerging artists’ work. The Darling Foundry presents original exhibitions and offers creation studios, international artistic residencies, in situ projects, and more.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Emmanuel Clavé Art Conseil, the Institut Français and the Consulat Général de France à Québec. Additional support is provided by the DHC Art Foundation, the Mois de la Photo à Montréal and Hagen inc. All programs and activities of the Darling Foundry are supported by the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, the Montreal Art Council, individual memberships and private donations.
