Annette Messager
October 2, 2010 – January 10, 2011
2 Sur 708, Centro Histórico
Puebla, Pue., 72000
México
difusion [at] museoamparo.com
From October 2 through January 10, 2011, Museo Amparo presents a variety of works from one of the most influential artists of the 20th century: Annette Messager. This exhibition, which originated at MARCO in Monterrey, displays her impressive repertoire of forms and materials, which play with emotions and feelings in a compelling manner. The artist imprints in her works the strength of a very personal language that is able to dominate the most intimidating of human forms and shows that no differentiation can exist between art and real life.
In her work, Messager activates the many possible meanings of words: to name, to categorize, to appropriate, to lie, to deceive, to flatter, to exaggerate. For Messager, the slightest alteration, even the inversion of two words, can transform the meaning of an entire paragraph. String, fabric, photographs, newspaper clippings, stuffed animals; all are given the same importance in the artist’s work. They are the materials of life, and for the artist, represent the plurality and mutability of the individual. “[In my work] I use the sort or things you might keep around the house- things that are familiar, useful. At the same time they are also always worn, they are never new, they have lived a life. Also all of these household materials, and especially stuffed animals, seem cuddly and nice, yet it takes a simple shadow to transform them into something disturbing. For me it’s everyday objects that are the most troubling and strange, not supernatural things.” In Messager’s oeuvre, materials are simply a means to an end.
In 1995, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art-New York held a major exhibition of Annette Messager´s work; in 2005, she received the highest honor, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale; and in 2007, the Centre George Pompidou´s Musée National d´Art Moderne featured an in-depth retrospective of her work. This exhibition is the largest individual show of Annette Messager´s oeuvre in Latin America; it not only depicts the extraordinary world referenced by her works but simultaneously pays homage to her career.
*Image above:
Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle.
