The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal will present
URANIBORG, a solo exhibition of work by Laurent Grasso. The exhibition, which was previously on view at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, was curated by the artist in conjunction with the Jeu de Paume's Director Marta Gili and the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal's Chief Curator Marie Fraser.
URANIBORG centers on the artist's exploration of observation as a vehicle for manufacturing reality and enforcing systems of power. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a catalogue including an essay by Marie Fraser, will be on view from February 7 through April 28, 2013.
URANIBORG features videos, sculptures, paintings and drawings by Laurent Grasso that explore observation of the heavens, surveillance, “political ghosts” and deceptive beauty. It draws inspiration from Michel Foucault's notion of "de-individualized power" and highlights Grasso's interest in the uncertain dynamics of temporality, paranoia, ambiguity, belief, rationality, fiction and truth. In an architectural gesture that underscores these concepts in his work, Grasso transformed the space of the museum by constructing a long, windowed corridor that segments the space and dramatically alters the viewer's experience of the works. From inside the corridor, the viewer can see only glimpses of the works in the exhibition that they later are able to see fully. As such, the design of the exhibition itself plays with levels of visual access and perception, underscoring the central themes of the works on view. These themes are further addressed in the new film work
URANIBORG, produced for the joint exhibition, in which architecture, mechanisms of power and the voice play a dominant role.
For more information on the exhibition, please visit
the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal's website.
Image: LAURENT GRASSO, URANIBORG, 2012, Exhibition presented at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, Photo: Romain Darnaud, © Laurent Grasso ADAGP 2013
