Alicja Kwade - Au cours des mondes
Place Vendôme, Paris
"Au cours des mondes" Alicja Kwade
Curated by Jérôme Sans
With the support of kamel mennour, Paris
In the context of the programme "Sites" from Paris+ by Basel.
October 18th - November 13th, 2022
Alicja Kwade, internationally renowned berlin-based artist, presents Au cours des Mondes, curated by Jérôme Sans. This installation sets a dialogue between new structures combining natural stone globes and endless concrete stairs with a set of natural stone spheres, a recurring motif for the artist. A veritable initiatory journey in the public space, the installation questions our relationship to knowledge, the universe, and the mechanisms of power.
Faced with the attempts and failures of science and philosophy to explain the world and the place of man within it, Alicja Kwade bases her questions beyond rationality and anthropocentrism. The relation to things therefore changes : from the atom to the planet, forms are repeated and hierarchies fall. In response to the ecological emergency, she does not warn of the destruction of the world over which we have no power, but calls for a reconsideration of individual priority in the light of a potential for collective transformation.
Palimpsest of the power structures, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, official architect of King Louis XIV, the Place Vendôme invested by the installation becomes the theater of a paradox between human time and cosmic infinity. Alicja Kwade thus resituates a furtive and fragile humanity seeking its place in an elusive universe.
Alicja Kwade lives and works in Berlin.
Her work investigates and questions the structures of our reality and society and reflects on our perceptual habits in our everyday life. Her diverse practice is based around concepts of space, time, science and philosophy, takes shape in sculptural objects, public installations, video and even photography.
Photo credits : Alicja Kwade. Installation view of Pars pro Toto (2018) for Helsinki Biennial Helsinki 2021. Courtesy of the artist, König Galerie, Berlin/ London.; Helsinki Biennial
Image credit: ©Maija Toivanen/HAM/Helsinki Biennial
"This installation is about the world, us stepping around it and trying to find a position on this planet, trying to find a position in power, playing games and doing things and at the end of the day, being placed on a globe, a sphere and flying around in the void. It is about the absurdity of the “course” for nothing."
- Alicja Kwade
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
Exhibition view "Au cours des mondes" Place Vendôme © Alicja Kwade Photo. Archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
