Lili Reynaud-Dewar
‘I am intact and I don‘t care’
21er Raum at 21er Haus, Vienna
20 March — 14 April 2013
Lili Reynaud-Dewar is interested in identity. Her own one is adressed as well as complex cultural stereotypes. She negotiates mythic, historical and biographic issues on one level while uncovering formal, fictional as well as symbolic potentials. Research and Performance are her tools for that, and the stage-like-ness her language.
Since January, Reynaud-Dewar is artist in residence at the Belvedere. She developed a new series of works in situ, that she now presents at the 21er Raum. An ensemble of furnishings was the output, coming close to an idea of what the artist‘s bedroom might look like.
"What if being an artist led to not having a room of one‘s own but instead many rooms of many owns? Many identical bedrooms decorated with flowers, fruits and liquids. It may also mean making oneself visible and available, always somehow reachable, all in one glance. In my many identical bedrooms I bleed, I dance, I work, I cry. I am no longer private: everything is on view. They say we have entered some time of visibility. With it comes repetition, repetition, repetition. My bedrooms are a cycle, my body is a material accessible via flat screens, my thoughts are recycled. Degradation occurs. Exhaustion occurs. Distraction occurs.
The fountain is a tribute, a monument even, or a metaphor to writers who use their own life as the source of all their work. The ones who reject the novel, the fable, the invention of characters and plots, the protocols of fiction and … the metaphor. One of them, Guillaume Dustan, described his intense -and repetitive- sexual life with accurate precision. He coined a term for the genre he favoured: ‘autopornobiography’. In his books he also bled, danced, worked, cried. His last book was titled ‘Premier roman’ (First Novel). His first book was titled ‘Dans ma chambre’ (In My Room). My room is dedicated to this book. Although Dustan remained little read, he influenced a generation of french (maybe parisians) young people. His image circulated via some screens -like the one of the tv, where he liked to go wearing a wig- and finally it didn‘t circulate anymore, probably because it had been repeated and degraded in some inappropriate ways. But, if you‘d like to, you could repeat the videos of his tv appearances endlessly on your personal screen.
This bedroom that you are standing in right now is modeled according to its circulation and replication imperatives. Yes it will be repeated. Little variations will occur in the next versions. Maybe a slightly bigger bed, some images of men having sex pasted in the back of the colorful panels, a video screen that folds into some secret cabinet, a fountain of colored ink instead of black. Or maybe it will be repeated as such, like a copy of itself, a little bit ludicrous. And at some point it won‘t circulate anymore, probably because it will have been repeated and degraded in some inappropriate ways." (L.R.-D.)
Lili Reynaud-Dewar lives and works in Paris and Grenoble. Recent exhibitions include shows at Magasin, Grenoble, 2012; Bielefeld Kunstverein, Bielefeld, 2011 and Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, 2010. She has also contributed to many international exhibitions including La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012; The End of Money, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2011 and Elles@centrepompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009. Her plans for 2013 encompass solo exhibitions at Kunstraum Innsbruck and Le Consortium, Dijon, and participating in the Lyon Biennale.
Exhibition catalogue:
21er Raum 2012 – 2016
Edited by Agnes Husslein-Arco and Severin Dünser
Including texts by Severin Dünser, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Paul Feigelfeld, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Lili Reynaud-Dewar and Luisa Ziaja on exhibitions by Anna-Sophie Berger, Andy Boot, Vittorio Brodmann, Andy Coolquitt, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Iman Issa, Barbara Kapusta, Susanne Kriemann, Adriana Lara, Till Megerle, Adrien Missika, Noële Ody, Sarah Ortmeyer, Mathias Pöschl, Rosa Rendl, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Anja Ronacher, Constanze Schweiger, Zin Taylor, Philipp Timischl, Rita Vitorelli and Salvatore Viviano
Graphic design by Atelier Liska Wesle, Vienna/Berlin
German/Englisch
Softcover, 21 × 29,7 cm, 272 pages, numerous illustrations in color
Belvedere, Vienna, 2016
ISBN 978-3-903114-18-0
