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Pierre Huyghe

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents Pierre Huyghe’s first retrospective in the United States, bringing together approximately 60 works from the past 25 years.

Pierre Huyghe’s diverse practice includes live situations, exhibitions, films, objects, and drawings. Huyghe often collaborates with specialists in other fields such as science, literature, film, music, and architecture.

In search of what the artist has termed a “non-knowledge zone,” Huyghe approaches an existing system – such as an institution, a situation, or an area of knowledge – and creates a speculative proposition: a “what could be.” Influences and role-playing are the materials with which Huyghe works.

Taking the exhibition at LACMA and its rituals as an object in itself, Huyghe explores the possibilities of this dynamic experience and the mise-en-scène of its boundaries. To that end, he has constructed time-based situations, where live events unfold according to a program or score. Most recently, his projects take the form of a self-generating network in which emergences and rhythms are indeterminate and exist beyond our presence.

The exhibition emphasizes the living dimension of Huyghe’s propositions, which envision the space as a world, evolving according to its own rhythms. Rather than displaying a selection of objects, the exhibition explores the porosities and the intensities that arise between elements.

The encounters that occur in “Pierre Huyghe” are not choreographed but unplanned; in what he refers to as an “auto-generative system,” the artist constructs a set of conditions and allows events to unfold following their own course.

Exemplifying Huyghe’s unique methodology, multiple elements from his 2012 installation at dOCUMENTA (13) will have their U.S. debut in this exhibition, including Human, a white Ibizan hound, and the film A Way in Untilled, which was filmed on site in Kassel, Germany. In addition, the exhibition will include the world premiere of a new aquarium and the U.S. premiere of the film Untitled (Human Mask). The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, edited by Emma Lavigne, with essays by Amelia Barikin, Tristan Garcia, Emma Lavigne, and Vincent Normand.

Installation view of the exhibition "Pierre Huyghe" at the Centre Georges Pompidou. © Pierre Huyghe, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris. Photo by Pierre Huyghe

Installation view of the exhibition "Pierre Huyghe" at the Centre Georges Pompidou. © Pierre Huyghe, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris. Photo by Arash Nassiri

Installation view of the exhibition "Pierre Huyghe" at the Centre Georges Pompidou. © Pierre Huyghe, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris. Photo by Ola Rinda

until February 22, 2015
Pierre Huyghe
organized by the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum Ludwig, Köln
supported by the LUMA Foundation; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York; Esther Schipper, Berlin; and Hauser & Wirth, London
additional support is provided in part by the Institut Français
sponsored by Christie’s
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Resnick Pavilion
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles

Get the best of Domus straight to your inbox!

Pierre Huyghe

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents Pierre Huyghe’s first retrospective in the United States, bringing together approximately 60 works from the past 25 years.

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