Solo show

Gäelle Choisne (1985, FR) lives and works in Paris. Sensitive to contemporary issues, Gaëlle Choisne’s practice considers the complexity of the world, its political and cultural disorder, whether it be the over-exploitation of nature, its resources, or the vestiges of colonial history, where Creole esoteric traditions, myths and popular cultures mingle. Her projects are conceived as ecosystems of sharing and collaboration, pockets of «resistance» where new possibilities are created, notably with the «Temple of Love» project. Initiated from Roland Barthes’ original essay on love, «Fragments d’un discours amoureux» (1977), Gaëlle Choisne adds a political dimension to the concept of love by paying homage to invisible bodies, minority and fragile souls, and dispossessed hearts. «Temple of love » is an evolutionary project defining itself through its modes of appearance and genesis according to its invitations and its location. The works/installations of Gaëlle Choisne have been exhibited in many institutions: (Vitry-sur-Seine), Centrale Powerhouse (Montreal), CAFA Museum (Beijing), Pera Museum (Istanbul), MAM - Musée d’art moderne de Paris, Musée Fabre (Montpellier), Zacheta Gallery (Warsaw), The Mistake Room (Los Angeles), Bétonsalon (Paris), Gr_und project space (Berlin), MAMO - Centre d’art de la Cité radieuse de Marseille, La Villette x Pompidou (Paris), Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers (Vienne), Musée archéologique Henri-Prade (Lattes), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon etc. She has also participated in several biennials and triennials: 15th Gwandju Biennial (2024), 3rd Toronto Biennial of Art (2024), 5th New Museum Triennial (2021), 11th International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA), 13th International Biennial of Lyon (2015), 12th Havana Biennial (2015), Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017) and 14th Curitiba Biennial (2017). She has been part of many residency programs in France and internationally such as “Meeting Points collaboration” with CCA -Campus Caraïbéen des Arts (Martinique), Bethanian-KW (Berlin), the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam), Atelier Van Lieshout (Rotterdam), the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris and OPTICA & Art3 Valence (Montreal). In 2024, Gaëlle Choisne won the Marcel Duchamp Prize and, in 2021, the AWARE Prize. In 2019, she is nominated for the Ricard Foundation Prize and the Sam Art Project. Gaëlle Choisne is represented by the gallery Air de Paris, Romainville (FR).

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Aquarium Biennial Fair Fruits Installation Love Performance Plants Sculpture Shells Stèles Temple of Love Videos Workshop

ACCUMULATION PRIMITIVE

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PRIMITIVE AMNÉSIA

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ACCUMULATION PRIMITIVE / PRIMITIVE AMNÉSIA, 2021

2 color videos 16/9
52’23’’ and 49'03''
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In the juxtaposition of the two video works Primitive Accumulation and Primitive Amnesia, Choisne imagines a genealogy of the Temple of Love and honours female and transfeminine persons as its pioneers. An interview with the Haitian voodoo priestess Madame Café and ‘docteur-feuille’ (“leaf doctor”), conversations with the artist and producer Christelle Oyiri (*1992) and Choisne’s mother, Marie-Carmen Brouard, provide insights into the experiences of racialised women in today’s society. The stories are interwoven with archive footage by the artist, poetic recollections of Haiti, music videos and films, as well as various references from the internet. In parallel, Choisne combines in Primitive Amnesia a selection of videos of women’s protests in France, Brazil and Haiti with close-ups of flowers that she recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown in Normandy.

The title of Primitive Accumulation refers to the concept of the same name according to Karl Marx (“Das Kapital”, 1867) and describes the expropriation of the immediate producers from their means of production in capitalist modes of production. Choisne draws an analogy to the dispossession of female and racialised people from their being and free will as well as the suppression of their physical self-determination in patriarchal systems. Among other things, she refers to the exploitation of enslaved people to secure the prosperity of European colonial powers during colonialism as well as the oppression of women and their bodily autonomy. In both videos works, the artist visualises individual and collective resistance struggles and emphasises that in Temple of Love, the concept of healing goes far beyond physical and spiritual dimensions and includes political emancipation processes.