May Philippe Parreno
May 9—August 16, 2009
Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich

May Philippe Parreno

The neon sign Boy from Mars was first installed outside Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York where Philippe Parreno's 2003 film by the same name was screening. In effect the bright yellow sculpture with its name shown in black letters on both sides is a precursor to the artist's series of marquees begun the following year, 2006, for an exhibition at Esther Schipper, Berlin. Like most of Parreno's works The Boy from Mars, both the film and this work, exist in an in-between space: Mirage-like the neon work announces a project, a film and its own connectedness.

Press Release

Philippe Parreno solo exhibition May was the first episode from a series of “retrospective” exhibitions. The other episodes, which presented in succession by the artist, were shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (3 June to 7 September 2009), the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (4 November 2009 to 24 January 2010) and the CCS, Bard College, New York (Spring 2010). Parreno developed a specific “image” for each of the named institutions based...
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