Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Born	(1965-06-30) June 30, 1965 Strasbourg, France
Website	www.dgf5.com

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (born 30 June 1965, in Strasbourg) is a French artist and an influential figure in international contemporary art. She is known for her great variety of work in video projection, photography, and spatial installations. She has worked in landscaping, design, and writing. "I always look for experimental processes. I like the fact that at the beginning I don't know how to do things and then, slowly, I start learning. Often exhibitions don't give me this learning possibility anymore."

Biography

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was born in Strasbourg, France in 1965. At the age of 17, she worked as a museum guard in Grenoble while studying at the École du Magasin of the National Centre of Contemporary Art in Grenoble. She also studied at the Institute des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, in Paris. She began her career as an artist in the 1990s, working primarily in film. Her early work was mainly short, minimalistic and oneiric films. She now collaborates on everything from the writing of a science fiction novel with fellow artist Philippe Parreno to working with rock singer Alain Bashung on set design. She has also collaborated with fashion house Balenciaga in designing displays for their fashion boutiques in New York and Paris. She has even designed a house for a collector in Tokyo.

Inspired by film, literature, modernist architecture, and art history, her work is often characterized by a quiet, intimate interrogation of contemporary urban life. Often she will use fragments from her international travels in her work and reassembles them into something new. "My approach to art is quite radical. It has more to do with theater and staging than making objects such as paintings or sculptures. Sometimes I think that the fetishism of objects is pathetic. It's one way to deal with art, but I'm obsessed with other things". She also hopes that her installations will encourage people to interact with them. "I want to coax people to engage with my art, in the same way that a writer might entice people to read a book". She was the recipient of an artist residency in Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto in 1996, the Mies van der Rohe Award in Krefeld in 1996, and the 2002 Marcel Duchamp award in Paris. For the season 2015/2016 in the Vienna State Opera Gonzalez-Foerster designed a large-scale picture (176 sqm) as part of the exhibition series "Safety Curtain", conceived by museum in progress. She currently lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

Work

Solo exhibitions

2015

• "Helen & Gordon", Safety Curtain 2015/16, museum in progress at the Vienna State Opera
• "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 1887-2058", Centre Pompidou, Paris

2013

• "Belle comme le jour" screening at International Film Festival, Rotterdam
• "M.2062", Performance at Stedelijik Museum, Amsterdam

2012

• "peer-to-gynt" with Ari Benjamin Meyers and Tristan Bera, National Theater of Greece, Athens, Hayward Gallery, London
• "Fahrenheit 451" with Ari Benjamin Meyers, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm
• "Pavillon d'argent", Jan Mot, Mexico City
• "Belle Comme de jour", ArtUnlimited, Basal
• "Return to Noreturn", Esther Schipper, Berlin
• "121st Night", Protocinema, Istanbul
• Spring lecture Series 2012, Princeton University School of Architecture

2011

• "T.1912", Guggenheim Museum, New York

2010

• Screening of "De Novo", Tate Modern, London

2009

• "chronotopes & dioramas", Dia Art Foundation, New York

2008

• "TH.2058 The Unilever Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster", The Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
• "Shortstories", Esther Schipper, Berlin
• "Nocturama", MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon

2007

• "Expodrome", Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris

2006

• "Parc Central", Esther Schipper, Berlin

2004

• "Multiverse", Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich
• "Alphavilles?", DeSingel International Arts Centre, Antwerp
• "Atomic Park", Galerie Jan Mot, Brussels

2003

• "Artist in Focus", Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

2002

• "Ann Lee", Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
• "Anywhere Out of the World", Kunstverein Munchen, Munich
• "Exotourisme", Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

2001

• "Ann Lee in Anzen Zone", Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
• "Riyo Central", Portikus, Frankfurt
• "Ann Lee in Anzen Zone", Galerie Schipper & Krome, Berlin
• "About", Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
• "Cosmodrome", Le Consortium, Dijon

2000

• "Ipanema Theories", BQ, Cologne
• Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg
• "Episodic", CAPACETTE Enterprise, Centro
• "Ann Lee in Anzen Zone", Galerie Mot & van der Boogard, Brussels

1999

• "Séance de Shadow III (orange, bleue)", Galerie Schipper & Krome, Berlin
• "Trapicale Modernite", Pavello Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, Galerie Mot & van der Boogard Brussels
• "Interiorisme", Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

1998

• "Home Cinema", Robert Prime Gallery, London
• "88:88", Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld
• Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

1997

• Kunstmuseum, Milwaukee
• "Moment Ginza", Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo

1996

• "Residence: color", Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
• Robert Prime Gallery, London
• "Cd-room", Ecole Notionale des Beaux Arts de Lyon, Lyon, The Run, Malmo
• "Zone de Tournage", Fri-Art, Fribourg
• "Sturm", Schipper & Krome, Cologne
• "Une Chambre en Ville", Galerie Mot & van der Boogard, Brussels

1995

• "Fille/Garcon(Sento)", Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
• "Double loge Biographique", Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

1994

• Galerie Analix, B&L Polla, Geneve
• "Interieurs", Stedelijik Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam
• "Chambres Atomiques", arsFutura, Zurich
• "Les Heures", Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris

1993

• "Numero Bleu", Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
• "Museum Robert Walser", Hotel Krone, Gais
• "RWF", Hohenzollernig 74, November Project: Schipper & Krome, Cologne

1992

• "Cabinet de Pulsions", Air de Paris, Nice
• "Nos Anées 70 et autres Recits", Galerie du Mois, Paris
• "Et la Chambre Orange", Villa Arson, Nice

1991

• "Le Mystére de la Chambre Juane", Esther Schipper XII, Art Brussels, Brussels
• "The Daughter of a Taoist", Esther Schipper, Cologne

1990

• Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris
• "The Mind of a Mnemonist", Esther Schipper, Cologne

1988

• "Bievenue a ce que vous Croyez Voir", Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris

1987

• "La Ligne 19&&", Galerie de Paris, Paris

1986

• "Mouchiors Abstraits", Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble

Exhibitions curated by the artist

2013

• "Cloud Illusions I recall", Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
• curated with Cerith Winn Evans and Rachel Thomas

1997

• “Moment Ginza”, Le Magasin, Grenoble

1995

• “Purple 9”, Galerie Jousse-Seguin, Paris

1994

• “Lʼhiver de Lʼamour”, Museé dʼArt Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris
• “The Winter of Love”, P.S.1. Museum, New York

1993

• “June”, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

1989

• “23 (33) Images de lʼart Francais”, Maison centrale de lʼartiste-Moscou
• “Rive, Fantaisie”, Galerie du Mois, Paris

1988

• “19&&”, Ecole du Magasin, Magasin; Centre National dʼArt Contemporain, Grenoble

Select permanent collections

• Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
• Musee d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, France
• Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, France
• Dia ARt Foundation, New York, NY
• Tate Modern, London, England
• MUSAC, Leon, Spain
• La Caixa Foundation, Barcelona and Madrid, Spain
• Inhotim, Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 21st Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
• Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Galleries

• 303 Gallery, New York, NY
• Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany
• Jan Mot, Brussels, Belgium
• Tomasso Corvi Mora, London, England
• Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo, Japan

Films

2012

• “Belle comme le jour”, DVD projection

2009

• “Noreturn”
• “De Novo”, DVD Projection

2008

• “The Last Film”, DVD Projection
• “Gloria”, DVD Projection

2007

• “Marquise”, DVD Projection

2006

• “Park Central”, Anna Sanders Film, DVD

2004

• “Atomic Park”, (Film Version), 2003-2004, DVD

2001

• “Plages”, 35mm, DVD
• “Central”, 35mm, DVD

1999

• “Riyo”, 35mm, DVD

1998

• “REPERAGES (RIYO)”, Color VHS
• “Ipanema Theorie”, Betacam

1991

• “U-Vision”, colour VHS, with Piere Joseph, Bernard Joisten and Phillipe Parreno, published by the weiner Festwochen, Vienna

1990

• “Ada en Ada”, color VHS, published by the Centre National des Arts Plastique,Paris

Books and catalogues

2011

• Defining Contemporary Art - 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Artworks, Phaidon

2009

• The New Monumentality, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

2008

• TH.2058, The Unilever Series, Tate Modern, London
• Nocturama, MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon
• Obrist, Hans Ulrich, The Conversation Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
• Back To The Future, in: Theanyspacewhatever, ed. by Nancy Spector, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• The Wizard of Oz, ed. by Jens Hoffmann, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco

2007

• Expodrome, Musée d'Art Moderne De la Ville de Paris / ARC, Paris
• Morgan, Jessica and Wood, Catherine, The World as a Stage Tate Modern, London
• Birnbaum, Daniel. Chronology, Sternberg Press
• Skulptur projekte münster 07, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Köln
• Skulptur projekte münster 07, Vorspann, Kunstakademie Münster / Verlag der
• Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln

2006

• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Tropicalisation, deSingel, Antwerp and JRP Ringier, Zürich
• Faster! Bigger! Better!, ZKM, Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe
• 27th Bienal de São Paulo. Guia, São Paulo
• Balenciaga Paris, Les Arts décoratifs, Paris and Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
• All Hawaii Entrées/Lunar Reggea, Irish Museum of Moden Art, Dublin
• Fischli Weiss, Fragen und Blumen, jrp ringier
• Art Vidéo, Sylvia Martin, Uta Grosenick (ed.), Taschen
• Tropicália, ed. by Carlos Basualdo, Cosac Naify, São Paulo

2005

• Magasin 1986 – 2006, ed. by Yves Aupetitallot, JPR Ringier
• The Collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
• Des Deux Cotés Du Rhin, Snoeck, Cologne
• Dean, Tacita & Millar, Jeremy, Place, Thames & Hudson, London

2004

• Moment Dream House. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster & Daisuke Miyatsu, Mori Art, Museum, Tokyo
• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Alphavilles?, Kunsthalle, Zürich/deSingel,

Antwerp, Zurich

• Turbulenz, Portikus Projekte 2001-2004, Volz, Jochen (ed.), Portikus Frankfurt am Main

2003

• Films. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Portikus, Frankfurt and Le Consortium, Dijon,

Paris

• Bourriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, Collection Documents sur lʼart, Dijon

2002

• Moisdon-Trembley, Stéphanie, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Paris
• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. PARK – Plan dʼevasion, Gent
• Le Prix Marcel Duchamp 2002, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
• International 2002, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, Liverpool

1999

• Tropical Modernité, ed. by D. Gonzalez-Foerster, J. Hoffmann, Fondation Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona
• Das Bild der Kunst. 20 Jahre art Das Kunstmagazin, ed. by Alfred Nemeczek,

Hamburg

1998

• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Musée d'Art

Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

• 1° Berlin Biennial, Berlin

1996

• Traffic, ed. by Nicolas Bourriaud, capc Musée dʼart contemporain, Bordeaux
• Collezionismo a Torino, Castello di Rivoli, Turin

1995

• Collection, fin Xxe, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Anguoleme
• Hotel Mama - Aperto '95, ed. by Peter Friedl, Kunstraum, Vienna

1994

• Soggetto-soggetto, edited by Giorgio Verzotti and Francesca Pasini, Castello di Rivoli, Torino
• Don't look now, ed. by Joshua Dexter, Thread Waxing Space, New York, New York
• Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Eva Marisaldi, ed. by Barbara Polla and Gianni Romano
• Galerie Analix, Geneva, Art Studio Milan, Milan
• Interieurs, ed. by D. Gonzalez-Foerster, Stedelijk Museum, Bureau Amsterdam, Amsterdam
• Rien à signaler, ed. by Barabara Polla and Gianni Romano, published by: Galerie Analix, Geneva
• Lʼhiver de lʼamour bis, ed. by Elein Fleiss, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Bernard Joisten
• Jean-Luc Vilmouth and Olivier Zahm, Société des Amis du Musée dʼArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris

1993

• Through the viewfinder, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam
• Biographique, Numero Bleu, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
• Documentario 2, ed. by M. Cingolani, M. Kaufmann, Italien
• XLV. Esposizione internazionale d'arte, La Biennale di Venezia 1993, Venice Project unite, Unite Firminy, France

1992

• Huitièmes ateliers internationaux des pays de la Loire, F.R.A.C. des Pays de la Loire, Garenne Lemot
• Le dimanche DE la vie, Gio'Marconi, Milan
• Exhibit A - eight artists from Europe and America, edited by Andrea Schlieker and Bond, Serpentine Gallery, London
• Molteplici culture, ed. by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Ludico Pratresi, Rome
• Dirty Data - Sammlung Schürmann, Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst, Aachen
• Twenty fragile pieces, Galerie Analix, B&L POLLA, Carouge/Geneve, Milan

1991

• No Man's Time, Villa Arson, Nice
• Topographie II: Untergrund, Wiener Festwochen, Vienna
• Plastic Fantastic Lover, BlumHelman Warehouse, New York
• Parcours Prives 91, Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble
• L'esprit bibliothèque, Les Editions Belle Haleine/La Galerie du Mois, Paris
• Gullivers Reisen/Gulliver's travels, Galerie Sophia Ungers, Cologne

1990

• French Kiss, Halle Sud, Geneva
• The Köln Show, nine Cologne Galeries (Buchholz, Capitain, Grunert, Hetzler Jablonka, Kacprzak, Schipper, Sprüth, Ungers), Cologne
• Grenoble in Innsbruck, Galerie de l'Institut Francais d'Innsbruck, Innsbruck
• Court-metrages immobiles, AFAA, Association Francaise d'Action Artistique, Paris
• Artistique, Le Prigioni, XLIV Biennale di Venezia, Venice
• Au commencement, Les Forges Royales de la Chaussade, Guerigny
• NO, Elein Fleiss, Paris

1989

• De l'instabilité, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris
• Fictions, ed. by Jerome Sans, LGE et Aubes 3935 Galerie Montreal,

1988

• Villa Redenta 2, Festival Mondi Due, Spoleto
• Ecole Beaux-Arts Grenoble, Ecole Beaux-Arts de Grenoble, Grenoble

Tate Modern's Turbine Hall installation

The show was entitled "The Unilever Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: TH.2058" and appeared in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London from October 14, 2008 to April 13, 2009. At the opening of the show Dominique said, " Some months ago, I used to wake up in the silence of the night to think about what I was going to do. But not anymore. People ask me, 'Are you scare?' No, I am not scared. If I was, I wouldn't do it. Rather, I'm excited. I am putting one third of my energy into just staying calm. The work is on such a scale that if you got too excited, you would explode,". The show was her first public commission in the UK and filled half of the 3,400 square meter hall. "TH.2058 by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, imagines Tate Modern 50 years into the future, set in a London afflicted by perpetual rain. Tate Modern is being used as a shelter for people, a storage space for art works and for the remains of culture. The vast Turbine Hall is filled with monumental replicas of iconic sculptural works. Rows of bunk beds are scattered with books, and on a giant screen The Last Film is continuously running. Made up of short excerpts from science-fiction films, The Last Film suggests a potential state of catastrophe as well as the possibility of collective memory,".

Hispanic Society of America installation

The installation at the Hispanic Society of America in New York was installed in 2009 and was entitled "chronotopes & dioramas". The Hispanic Society of America is a museum and research library with an impressive collection of paintings, decorative objects, books, documents, prints, and photographs. However, Dominique discovered it only had a limited supply of 20th century literature and wanted to fill in the gaps. She enlisted help from experts at the American Museum of Natural History. The project involved crafting three habitats in which volumes by nearly 40 authors replaced taxidermied fauna. One evokes water and verticality; another, aridity and flatness; the third, trailing vines. They represent three zones: North America, the Desert, and the Tropics. Aside from the books, each diorama contains a single, mute trace of human presence. In the underwater ocean scene there is an oil barrel. In the desert scene there are ruins of a concrete bunker. In the tropical scene there is a desolate, glass house. They each show the wear and tear of passing time. Many of the books in the dioramas are about anxiety and exile. She also created a mural-sized calligram (an arrangement of words that creates a related visual image). This is Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope; "functioning as the primary means for materializing time in space with the novel". The installation is housed in an annex to the library.

References

• Coulter-Smith, Graham. "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: Public-Personal Space." N.p., 2005. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.installationart.net/PDF/Gonzalez-Foerster.pdf>.
• "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster." 303 Gallery, n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.303gallery.com/artists/dominique_gonzalez-foerster/>.
• "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster." Artspace. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.artspace.com/dominique_gonzalez_foerster>.
• "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster." Edge. Ed. John Brockman. Edge Foundation, n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://edge.org/memberbio/dominique_gonzalez-foerster>.
• Gonzalez-Foerster, Dominique. "Dgf5." Dgf5. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.dgf5.com/>.
• Jones, Kristin M. "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster." Frieze. N.p., Mar. 2010. Web. 1 May 2013. <https://www.frieze.com/issue/review/dominique_gonzalez_foerster/>.
• Sooke, Alastair. "Tate Modern Unilever Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's Grand Design." The Telegraph. N.p., 11 Oct. 2008. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3561934/Tate-Modern-Unilever-series-Dominique-Gonzalez-Foersters-grand-design.html>.
• "The Unilever Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: TH.2058." Tate. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2013. <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-dominique-gonzalez-foerster-th2058>.
• "Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Transforms the Vienna Opera with an Homage to Helen Frankenthaler." Artsy. Arielle Bier, 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 11 November 2015. <https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-dominique-gonzalez-foerster-transforms-the-vienna-opera-with>.

External links

• Official website
• Gallery 303
• Esther Schipper
• Corvi-Mora, London
• Galerie Jan Mot
• Galerie Koyanagi
• Anna Sanders Films
• Camera Lucida