Despite its direct address to the viewer, Vivre avec ça ? ! [Live through that?!] takes on multiple and ambiguous meanings. Is it a question asked of those who collect and live with artworks? A question that the artist asks of herself? Does the “Ça” – the “That” – point to regrets, to guilt, to a secret or to memories? Or is it simply the artist’s body, which is placed center stage – put on exhibition, even – in this show?

This exhibition will be the first gathering of a great portion of the videos that the artist has made since 2011, which she describes as a journal that documents her circulation as an artist. She dances naked, her body covered in dark make-up, in places where she has been invited to show her work, thus contaminating her own exhibitions – and also sometimes those of other artists – and revealing institutions behind the scenes, empty of artworks or visitors, and unfinished exhibitions.

In addition to these works are large, barely unmade beds with holes made for loudspeakers that play repetitive electronic music and a voice reading texts by Dustan, Duras, and the American poet Eileen Myles (a few of the artist’s favorite authors), who use their own lives as material for their writing and for their bare, direct styles. This laying bare and this exhibition – of which Lili Reynaud-Dewar seems to be enamored in various ways, down to her treatment of the exhibition space as a domestic space – come face to face with large glass panels under which men’s suits and pajamas are pressed, frozen in improbable and parodic poses not so dissimilar from the artist’s own gesticulations in her videos.

The exhibition will also be an occasion for the presentation of a specially produced vinyl record that collects several tracks made for the artist by the electronic musician MACON.

Born in 1975 in La Rochelle, France, Lili Reynaud-Dewar lives and works in Grenoble, France.

Her works has been display in numerous solo exhibitions : at the New Museum in New York, the Index Fondation for Contemporary Arts in Stockholm, the Consortium of Dijon, 21er Raum – Belvedere in Vienna, at the Outpost in Norwich, the Magasin - Centre National d’Art Contemporain of Grenoble, the kunsthalle Basel, the Fondation Calder in New York (performance), the Serpentine Cinema in London (performance), the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims.

She also participated in group shows at the Centre Pompidou, the Plateau, the Palais de Tokyo and the Fond d’entreprise Ricard in Paris, the CAPC in Bordeaux, the CAFAM in Beijing, the Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, the Kunsthalle Fribourg, the Generali Foundation and the MAK in Vienna, the Witte de With in Rotterdam ; as well as in the 2013 Lyon Biennale and the 5th Berlin Biennale.

Lili Reynaud-Dewar is the winner of the 15th Fondation d’entreprise Ricard Prize.

Kamel Mennour Gallery

47, rue Saint-André des arts
Paris 75006 France
Ph. +33 (0)1 56240363
galerie@kamelmennour.com
www.kamelmennour.com

Opening hours

Tuesday - Saturday
From 11am to 7pm

Related images
  1. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, I Don't Know What a Conceptual Artist Looks Like 2, 2012, Vidéo blanc & noir (sans son) / Black & white video (mute), 2 min 37 sec, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
  2. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, - Vivre avec ça ?!, 2014, Lits, draps, haut-parleurs, amplis, lecteurs CD, mélodies (en boucle) / Beds, sheets, speakers, amplifiers, CD players, looped audios (melody), Dimensions variables / Variable dimensions, - Live Through that ?!, 2014, Pyjamas d'hommes, verres, rubans adhésifs / Man's pyjamas, glasses, tapes, Dimensions variables / Variable dimensions, Vue de l’exposition / Exhibition view « Vivre avec ça ?!», kamel mennour (47, rue saint-andré des arts), Paris, 2014, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
  3. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Live Through That (Atelier Brancusi), 2014, Vidéo blanc & noir (sans son) / Black & white video (mute), 7 min 35 sec, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
  4. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Vivre avec ça ?!, 2014, Pyjama d'homme, verre, ruban adhésif, impression laser / Man's pyjamas, glass, tape, laser print, 165 x 75 cm, Vue de l’exposition / Exhibition view « Vivre avec ça ?!», kamel mennour (47, rue saint-andré des arts), Paris, 2014, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
  5. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Vivre avec ça ?!, 2014, Pyjama d'homme, verre, ruban adhésif, radiographies dentaires, impressions laser / Man's pyjamas, glass, tape, dental radiographies, laser prints, 165 x 75 cm, Vue de l’exposition / Exhibition view « Vivre avec ça ?!», kamel mennour (47, rue saint-andré des arts), Paris, 2014, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
  6. Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Vivre avec ça ?!, 2014, Pyjama d'homme, verre, ruban adhésif, radiographies dentaires, impressions laser / Man's pyjamas, glass, tape, dental radiographies, laser prints, 165 x 75 cm, Vue de l’exposition / Exhibition view « Vivre avec ça ?!», kamel mennour (47, rue saint-andré des arts), Paris, 2014, © Lili Reynaud-Dewar, © Photo. Fabrice Seixas, Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris