C.Lorent_View_Multiple_Rooms_Biennale2013_©_photo_Rémi_Villaggi_062.
Luxembourg Pavilion
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Catherine Lorent
Relegation
Exhibition from 1 June to 24 November 2013
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
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Commissioner: Clément Minighetti
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Curator: Anna Loporcaro
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Catherine Lorent works with an expanded Baroque concept of art that exposes the
contradictions of the modern western way of life and questions dialectical thought.
Her very practice undermines well-established categories, combining painting,
drawing and sculpture with performance, music and theatrical stagings into visually
and acoustically charged installations.
Her musical project Gran Horno, in which she acts simultaneously as a visual artist
and a multi-instrumentalist, epitomises this multidisciplinary approach, which at
first sight appears to pander to the current trend towards “event exhibitions”. But
Lorent’s work anything but superficial, transposing complex Baroque strategies for a
sensual Gesamtkunstwerk into the modern age. Inspired or seduced by her mystical,
hermetical work, spectators are often encouraged by its participatory components to
give free rein to their own creativity and respond to the artist’s idea with a subjective
reinterpretation.
The title of the sound installation shown at Ca’ del Duca – Relegation – refers to the
longstanding rejection, or “banishment”, of Baroque in the history of art, nowhere
more so than in Venice, where Late Baroque architecture was stifled in its development
by “anti-Baroque polemics”. Contrary to similar Baroque-averse tendencies in
the current Berlin art canon, Lorent’s work posits the formal vocabulary of Baroque,
which is often dismissed as absurd, wasteful and pathetic, as a central reference
point. Citing pamphlets from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Lorent, who
holds a PhD in art history, appropriates Baroque iconography relating to concepts
of the sublime, power and domination, while highlighting the absurdities and contradictions
which Baroque artists themselves had been very much aware of. For binary
models fall short of explaining the complexities of the world: good and bad or ratio
and religio may be antagonistic concepts, but in reality they are closely intertwined.
In the Luxembourg Pavilion art and music merge with the palazzo architecture as
though in an alchemist’s crucible as Lorent skillfully combines antithetical elements
such as abstraction and figuration, highbrow and lowbrow culture, free improvisation
and rigid concept.
The exhibition opens with Séismes, a series of unframed drawings of electric guitars
and other motifs during an imaginary earthquake lining the aisle like ephemeral
manifestations. The long corridor gains claustrophobic momentum when sounds,
triggered by sensors, suddenly spill from amplifiers facing the drawings. Walking
through the pavilion, spectators unwittingly set off a series of electric guitars via an
electro-magnetic control system; each of the guitars, which are hanging from the
ceiling, generates a sustained sound thanks to a so-called EBow. Besides these
thirteen Gibson Explorer guitars – symbols of rock and pop culture – the rooms
along the Canal Grande accommodate three concert pianos – the epitome of
classical highbrow culture – which have equally been prepared with EBows to play
minor chords that combine with the siren-like guitar sounds to create a haunting
atmosphere.
In this sequence of rooms, as indeed throughout the pavilion, the artist’s large-scale
drawings have been hung on the ceiling instead of the walls; like Arnold Bode with
documenta III in 1964, Lorent thus aims to encourage a perception of art that remains
unconventional to this day: the experience of art and space beyond pragmatic
functionality. But notwithstanding its innovative and experimental nature in the era
of the pervasive white cube and the almighty art market, this approach decidedly
stands in the tradition of Baroque ceiling paintings in Catholic churches. Lorent
explicitly references the Baroque ornament in the shape of cartouche frames, which
help to glorify the subject of the painting, but also the spiritual-mystical symbolism of
Freemasonry and alchemy.
A compendium of timeless discussions of the nature of genius, vanity and death, this
exhibition can be seen as the apotheosis of life and an invitation to carpe diem, but
all the while, spectators, upon entering the last room, cannot avoid the existential
questions it asks: the black-lit darkness and the falling angels on the ceiling throw
them back on themselves – their human existence, insignificantly small compared to
the infinity of the universe, yet holding so much potential. What can we achieve in life?
With her four-dimensional Baroque montage – which she will transform into a "living
installation" during the opening weekend by performing a series of Fluxus-inspired
‘endurances’ (Catherine Lorent) – Lorent does not so much offer specific answers as
a space of dissonance; and while certain aspects of her work may remain hermetic,
they never lack a pinch of Baroque humour.
Programme
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Opening of the Pavilion of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
30 May 2013, 5.30 pm – 8.00 pm
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Preview
29 May 2013 – 31 May 2013, from 10 am to 8 pm
Press breakfasts
“Café croissant” meeting with the artist and the commissioner during the preview
days, every morning between 9 am and 10.30 am (for press only)
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Performance by Gran Horno (Catherine Lorent)
29 May 2013, 6 pm – 7 pm
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Performance Relegation Songs by Nataša Gehl & Catherine Lorent
30 May 2013, 6 pm – 7 pm
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Performance by Gran Horno (Catherine Lorent) & Martin Eder/Ruin
31 May 2013, 6 pm – 7 pm
Catalogue
The catalogue Catherine Lorent – Relegation published by Mudam Luxembourg
features Catherine Lorent’s exhibition for the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 55th
Biennale di Venezia. It comprises a preface by the minister of culture Octavie Modert,
a scientific text by art historian Conny Becker and a conversation between the
commissioner Clément Minighetti and the artist. An important iconographic section
presents a visual tour of the exhibition at the Luxembourg Pavilion.
Catherine Lorent – Relegation
Mudam editions, 2013
Authors: Octavie Modert, Conny Becker, Clément Minighetti
French / English
120 pages
ISBN 978-2-919923-21-2
Price: 15 €
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
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ADDRESS AND INFORMATION
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Artist: Catherine Lorent
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Commissioner: Clément Minighetti
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Curator: Anna Loporcaro
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Duration
Exhibition from 1 June
to 24 November 2013
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Opening hours
Every day from 10 am to 6 pm
Closed on Mondays
(except on 8 June and 18 Novemer 2013)
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Address and information
Ca’ del Duca
Corte del Duca Sforza
San Marco 3052, Venezia
Telephone/Fax: +39 0415207534
E-mail: info@relegation.net
Web: www.relegation.net
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Organiser
Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
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With the support
• Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg
• OEuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, stART up
• Gibson Guitar Corp.
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Press contact
Valerio D’Alimonte
Mudam Luxembourg
Telephone: +352 691 432 896
E-mail: v.dalimonte@mudam.lu
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Artist’s biography
Catherine Lorent
Catherine Lorent (born 1977 in Munich, Germany) studied painting at the Staatliche
Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe (1998 – 2003). She went on to study
history at the University of Freiburg (2002 – 2004) and art history at Paris-Sorbonne
(2004 – 2006). She graduated with a Joint PhD in history from the University of
Luxembourg (2010) and in art history from the University of Heidelberg (2012). The
Luxembourgish artist, who lives and works in Berlin, has also been experimenting
with several instruments including electric guitar, bass, piano and harmonium,
while pursuing her musical project Gran Horno. Lorent has exhibited in Germany,
France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg. She won the ‘Prix
d’encouragement Jeunes Artistes 2005’ and the ‘Prix Révélation 2011’, both awarded
by the Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg. In 2011, she was also nominated for the
Robert Schuman Prize.
Solo Exhibitions
2013
Relegation, Luxembourg Pavilion, 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di
Venezia, Venice (it)
Réminiscences réactivées, Galerie Gourvennec Ogor, Marseille (fr)
2012
Séismes, Galerie Fischerundfischer, Berlin (de)
Acedia, Centre d’Art Nei Liicht, Dudelange (lu)
Réminiscences censurées, CAPe, Ettelbruck (lu)
2011
Catholic Block, invited by Nicole Bianchet, De Willem 3, Vlissingen (nl)
2009
Be my Guest, invited by Claudia Passeri and Michèle Walerich, EXIT 07, Luxembourg (lu)
2008
Barocco in Bocca, Kfa Galerie, Berlin (de)
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
2007
Le Cerveau et la souris, Showroom Berlin, Berlin (de)
Resurrection Baby – Life is Splendid, Agence Borderline, Esch-sur-Alzette (lu)
2001
Galerie 19 Rouge, Luxembourg (lu)
Group Exhibitions
2013
Abendland, Produzentengalerie Hamburg, Hamburg (de)
My Fear is Your Desire, LuxusLoft/Schau Fenster, Berlin (de)
Dawn of the Hermetics, Wonderloch Kellerland/Kosmetiksalon Babette, Berlin (de)
2012
Die schöne Melancholie, invited by Conny Becker, Tête, Berlin (de)
Play Together, Kunstraum Sellemond, Vienna (at)
Painting was a Lady, Wonderloch Kellerland, Berlin (de), Kreuzberg Pavillon, Kassel (de),
Wiener Art Foundation & Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna (at)
Luxus Loft. September Issue, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin (de)
Cognitio Arsphobiae: Show Therapy, The Wand, Berlin (de)
Artists Merchandising Art, Wonderloch Kellerland, Berlin (de), Hamburg (de), Los
Angeles (us), Paris (fr), Vienna (at), Luxus Loft, Rotterdam (nl)
2011
Labskaus, Künstlerhaus Gängeviertel, Hamburg (de)
Inne anner room, Wonderloch Kellerland, Berlin (de)
Cercle artistique Luxembourg, CarréRotondes, Luxembourg (lu)
Jardins d’amis, invited by Caroline Bittermann, Immanence, Paris (fr)
Prix d’art Kunstpreis Robert Schumann, Cercle Cité, Luxembourg (lu)
Train fantôme, Galerie Cruise & Callas, Berlin (de)
La Vallée patibulaire, called by Caroline Bittermann, Peter Duka, Catherine Lorent,
Caro Suerkemper, Berlin (de)
Coup de main, invited by Hadassah Emmerich, Galerie Invaliden1, Berlin (de)
Fresco Mondo, The Forgotten Bar, Berlin (de)
2010
Pentagonade, Galerie im Regierungsviertel/The Forgotten Bar, Berlin (de)
Moving Worlds, CarréRotondes, Luxembourg (lu)
Sentiers Rouges, Esch-sur-Alzette (lu)
Liaisons dangereuses, Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Cologne (de)
Madonna Psycho Slut, invited by Despina Stokou, Grimmuseum, Berlin (de)
2009
Transzendenz Inc., invited by Heike Kelter and René Luckhardt, Galerie im Regierungsviertel/The Forgotten Bar, Berlin (de)
2008
Die Türme zu Blabbel oder der Heilway zur Doppelhöhle, with Nicole Bianchet, West Germany, Berlin (de)
The Joy of Painting, GMÜR, Berlin (de)
Berlin Bouquet, The Living Room(s), Amsterdam (nl)
Young & Beautiful, Kunstraum Riehen, Basel (ch)
2006
Regionale 7, Kunstraum Riehen, Basel (ch)
2003
Cercle artistique Luxembourg, Galerie d’Art – Villa Vauban de la Ville de Luxembourg (lu)
Projects
Gran Horno
Modern Music Science
www.granhorno.com
www.facebook.com: Gran Horno
Albums
Songs of Hyde & Seek, 2011
Resurrection Baby, 2007–2008
Bibliography
Acedia. Réminiscences censurées, Galerie Nei Liicht, Dudelange 2012
(ISBN 978-2-9119993-26-0)
Die nationalsozialistische Kunst- und Kulturpolitik im Großherzogtum Luxemburg
1934 – 1944, Kliomedia, Trier 2012
(ISBN 978-3-89890-173-4)
Curators ’ biographies
Clément Minighetti
Born in Bastia, France, in 1970
Clément Minighetti joined the Mudam – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean team
in 2000 and was in charge of the collection and acquisitions during the prefiguration
period (2000 - 2006). He was also responsible for productions by international artists
(Wim Delvoye, Gaylen Gerber, Mark Lewis, Pipilotti Rist, etc).
Co-curator of Mudam’s inaugural exhibition Eldorado in 2006, he became Chief
Curator of Mudam in 2007 and has since directed the art department. He regularly
organises exhibitions. In 2011 and 2012 he curated the solo exhibitions by Filipa
César 1975, Steven C. Harvey Vehicles, Conrad Shawcross The Nervous Systems
(Inverted), Børre Sæthre Untitled (Wardenclyffe Tower) and theme exhibitions
including Les Détours de l’abstraction, Mondes inventés, Mondes habités and
Walking Through...
He became a member of the IKT (International Association of Curators of
Contemporary Art) in 2010.
Anna Loporcaro
Born in Luxembourg, in 1977
Following studies in Art History and Visual Arts in Brussels, she joined Mudam –
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in 2005 as a production assistant. In 2007,
she took charge of artistic events in the museum. Wishing to extend the field of visual
arts, she is particularly interested in creators of fashion and design. She was also
behind Design City, the Design biennale in Luxembourg. As the organizer of events
such as Many Spoken Words and My Mudam, she regularly invites young creators,
DJs, musicians, actors, poets and artists to perform in the museum. She also curates
solo exhibitions (Maurizio Galante, Tal Lancman).
She was a member of the jury for the Dynamo Award (a prize for new Belgian design)
in 2007 and 2009 and has since been a consultant for independent galleries and
designers.
