The Fondation Thalie is pleased to present Land & Language, a series of paintings by Agnès Thurnauer started in 2016, composed across four variations. These outstandingly political works are inspired by the current migration crisis.
Built on a frame of words written by the English poet Rod Mengham and inspired by various images taken from news, this series of large paintings by Agnès Thurnauer for the first time shown to the public, is as if crossed by a diagonal formed by gestures of solidarity between men and women who cross borders. Here, the bodies carry their language to the point where they become their only country of residence and merge with the continents. Until the last painting, the oceans invaded the geography of the canvas and words became the only possible cartography.
Curator: Nathalie Guiot
Agnès Thurnauer is a Franco-Swiss artist. A self-taught painter, she studied video and cinema at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Her work addresses the issue of pictorial language; her practice implements a space in which figuration and abstraction yield a new vision. Writing, materials and framing choices are just as essential to her as her painter’s palette. Her recent work, playing with volume, extends this pictorial language into three dimensions: just like in her paintings, the viewer’s gaze circulates between the shapes of the letters to generate fresh interpretations every time. For Agnès Thurnauer, “the viewer shapes the picture” as much as the picture shapes the viewer. Her work activates this spirited interface—this reciprocal reading—between the art and the viewer. Agnès Thurnauer’s work has been exhibited in museums and international art centers (Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, CCCB Rio, SMAK Gent), and her works are part of many private and public collections. Agnès Thurnauer is represented by Galerie Michel Rein (Paris-Brussels) and Gandy gallery in Bratislava.
Practical information
Until Sunday 8 March 2020
The Foundation is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 14:00 > 18:00
Opening : Free entry, then from Friday 17 January 2020 : 7€ / 5€*
* Reduced price: students, job seekers, -26 year old, SMART members
More information here.