philippe parreno's show at pola museum conjures the natural & artificial

pola museum of art presents Philippe Parreno: place and space

The Pola Museum of Art presents the largest exhibition for French artist Philippe Parreno in Japan, encompassing his diverse practice ranging from early works to an installation unveiled for the first time, with his well-known film Marilyn (2012) among the highlights. As displayed by the museum, Parreno has been active in the contemporary art scene since the 1990s. He employs a wide range of media including film, sound, objects, installation, text, and drawing, while maintaining a consistent focus on boundaries between reality, the fictional, and the hypothetical, or between the natural and the artificial, and on bizarre misalignments that arise among them.

installation view – My Room Is Another Fish Bowl, 2024 | collection of Pola Museum of Art

image © Andrea Rossetti

creating a labyrinth of symbols throughout the exhibition

As part of his multimedia explorations, Philippe Parreno interrogates concepts of art and authorship, collaborating with numerous artists, architects, and musicians. While incorporating advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and robotics into his works, the artist also playfully manipulates familiar objects such as pianos, lamps, window blinds, and balloons, creating poetic situations in which dynamism, silence, humor, and critique intersect. Here, he takes the exhibition itself as his experimental medium and meticulously transforms the interior and exterior spaces of the Pola Museum of Art into a labyrinth of symbols, where mysterious presences, voices, lights, darkness, and hidden messages configure a dramatic sequence.

installation view – My Room Is Another Fish Bowl, 2024 | collection of Pola Museum of Art

image © Andrea Rossetti

Stepping into a venue resembling a large-scale theatrical set, visitors find themselves immersed in experiences that bring both unprecedented wonder and confusion as if we were involved in his attempt as performers. The experience resembles a fleeting dream, a journey, or, as Philippe Parreno suggests, something like a film. His groundbreaking approach to the presentation of works alters the paradigm of the exhibition and poses profound questions regarding how art should be and can be experienced. ‘Intrepidly crossing all kinds of boundaries, this liberated spirit guides us on our journeys through various places and spaces,’ concludes the Pola Museum of Art. The exhibition is running until December 1, 2024.

Gallery 2 entrance | image © designboom

installation view – Speech Bubbles (Bronze), 2024 | collection of Pola Museum of Art | image © Andrea Rossetti

image © designboom

installation view – Marquee, 2024 | Pola Museum of Art, courtesy Philippe Parreno | image © Andrea Rossetti

installation view – Heliotrope, 2023-2024 | Pola Museum of Art, courtesy Philippe Parreno and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul | image © Andrea Rossetti