After Thierry Fontaine last year, Anna Malagrida, winner of the Carte Blanche PMU 2016, is presenting her project titled Cristal House at the Photography Gallery at the Centre Pompidou. As a preview, we have an interview with Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, the institution’s curator and curator of this exhibition.
How did you build a relationship with the Centre Pompidou, the PMU, and the chosen artist throughout the year?
After a call for applications and the preselection of six artists with the participation of the Centre Pompidou, the nominees are invited to orally defend their project in front of a new jury of nine people. Who have to choose an artist based on the quality of his or her presentation, but also on the originality of the project. We have to pay attention to the feasibility of it being completed within a time frame that doesn’t exceed five months, which is a very short amount of time. Especially since the artist is presenting a number of ideas for consideration and, between the design and final stage of the project, there are always changes. So, while Anna Malagrida had intended on working on reflections in the city, she ultimately focused her project on humans.
Beyond sponsorship, is it, above all, a matter of content partnership?
In fact, if Françoise Vogt, who is in charge of the cultural sponsorship of PMU, accompanies the artist during the creative process, then for us, the curators at the Centre Pompidou, our role is to follow the artist and eventually guide them. Because the project is made for and in accordance with the gallery space, which is 200 m2. We think about the public , who comes to this space to see contemporary exhibitions. And the role of the curator is precisely to be the intermediary between the artist and the public. For the Centre Pompidou, it’s a real opportunity to have a contemporary artist within the space, but the inverse is equally true.
Like the previous recipients, Anna Malagrida is offering a very loose interpretation of the theme of the game…
The PMU doesn’t impose anything and doesn’t look for a direct interpretation of the theme. The subject is not taken at the first degree. Certainly, Anna Malagrida is showing a place where one plays, but this realm is not really the subject of her work. Because Anna Malagrida is talking about the world in general… The strength of this piece is being composed of several elements: photographs, film, objects, writings. In the end, it allows each of us to be projected based on our own history. In my opinion, it’s a piece on meeting others and the fact that it saves us… It makes us understand something about ourselves and our way of life… It makes us progress in a certain way. But that’s only one of the possible ways to interpret it.
Can you tell us more about the exhibition’s distinctive feature of mixing photographs, film, writing…
Everything fell into place very naturally. What’s interesting, notably, is the manner in which Anna Malagrida uses video. First because she uses a camera to film. Next because she chooses a fixed frame by placing the camera on a stand. She makes films as if she’s making photography. With this simple enough arrangement, she offers a reflection on the manner of how we use the photographic camera today. This artist, who has a strictly photographic background, demonstrates the boundaries in contemporary art are not rigorously defined. Photographs and film are part of the same family.
Sophie Bernard
Exhibition
Cristal House, Anna Malagrida
From September 28 to October 16, 2016
Centre Pompidou, Paris
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/
Book
Cristal House, English/French, co-production by Carte blanche PMU, whitepapierstudio, Filigranes publishing, 25 euros
