Artist Profile

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Portrait of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was born 1965 in Strasbourg, France. She studied at École des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble, L'École du Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble and Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, Paris. The artist lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

 

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster participated in the Venice Biennale in 1990, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2009, and 2019.

 

Gonzalez-Foerster participated in Documenta11 in 2002. The artist received the Mies Van der Rohe Award in Krefeld in 1996 and the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Award in 2002. In 2008, she created TH.2058 as part of The Unilever Series in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London. In 2022 Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster together with Ange Leccia, directors of the film Christophe... définitivement, is included in the Official Selection of 75th Festival de Cannes.

 

An experimental artist based in Paris, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has, since 1990, been exploring the different modalities of sensory and cognitive relationships between bodies and spaces, real or fictitious, up to the point of questioning the distance between organic and inorganic life. Metabolizing literary and cinematographic, architectural and musical, scientific and pop references, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster creates "chambres" and "interiors", "gardens", "attractions" and "planets", with respect to the multiple meanings that these terms take on in the works of Virginia Woolf or Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Brontë sisters or Thomas Pynchon, Joanna Russ or Philip K. Dick. This investigation of spaces extends to a questioning of the implicit neutrality of practices and exhibition spaces. Her "mises en espace", "anticipations" and "apparitions" seek to invade the sensory domain of the viewers in order to operate intentional changes in their memory and imagination. Haunted by history and future, Gonzalez-Foerster's works become containers where the artist incubates a form of subjectivity that does not yet exist. Through multiple international exhibitions, short films, productions and concerts, Gonzalez-Foerster’s mutant work contributes to the invention of new technologies of consciousness. (Paul B. Preciado)

 

Upcoming solo exhibition to be held at The Power Plant Toronto (2023). Selected solo exhibitions include: Alienarium 5, Serpentine Galleries, London (2022); OPERA (QM.15), Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Paris (2022); VOLCANIC EXCURSION (A VISION), Secession, Vienna (2021); Martian Dreams Ensemble, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (2018); Costumes and Wishes for 21st Century, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in collaboration with Manuel Raeder and BLESS, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2016); Pynchon Park, MAAT Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon (2016); Opera-House, Huis Sonneveld, Rotterdam (2016); Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 1887-2058, K20, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2016) and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Temporama, Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (2015); SPLENDIDE-HOTEL, Palacio de Cristal, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2014); M.2062 (Scarlett), The Museum of Kyoto, Japan (2013); Chronotopes & Dioramas, Dia Art Foundation, New York (2009), and TH.2058 The Unilever Series, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2008).

 

Recent group exhibitions include: Shenzen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, Shenzen (2022); M+ Museum West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong (2022); Bergen Assembly, Bergen (2022); Farbe ist Programm, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2022); Programme Mire, Gare de Chêne-Bourg, Genève (2022); Video Room program, Histories cycle, Museu de arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP), São Paulo (2021); Mirrors and Windows, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf (2021); Inaugural exhibition, The Tower, LUMA, Arles (2021); SETTING - R. W. F. alive, mim | Raum für Kultur, Munich (2020); Enzo Mari, Triennale Milano, Milan (2020); May You Live in Interesting Times, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2019); Luogo e Segni, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019); Opera as the World, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2019); Welt ohne Außen, Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018); In Tune with the World, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); 38th EVA International, Ireland's Biennial of Contemporary Art, Limerick (2018); Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2017-2018); High-tension: 8 Winners of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Red Brick Museum, Beijing (2017); Infinite Garden. From Giverny to Amazonia, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2017); Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist, Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle, Berlin (2017) and The Jewish Museum, New York (2016); Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016, Whitney Museum, New York (2016); The Infinite Mix, Hayward Gallery (Offsite), The Store, London (2016); Decor, Villa Empain - Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2016); Where Text is Broken by a Building..., Arario Museum, Seoul (2016); 1984 - 1999 The Decade, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2015); Parasophia, Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture, Kyoto (2015); Manifesta 10, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2014); Solaris Chronicles, Parc des Ateliers, Luma Foundation, Arles (2014); M.2062 (Edgar Allan Poe), Promenade dans la salle des marquees, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (as part of her contribution to Phillipe Parreno's solo exhibition) (2013); Stage it! (Part II), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013); To the moon via the beach, organized by Liam Gillick and Philippe Parreno, LUMA Foundation, Arles (2012), and Performa 09, New York (2009).

 

The artist's work is represented in the collections of 21st museum of contemporary Art Kanazawa; ARC/Musée d´art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Fonds National d´Art Contemporain, France; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; La Caixa Foundation, Barcelona and Madrid; Inothim, Belo Horizonte; Musée d´art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO), Genève; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Tate Modern, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+ Museum, Hong Kong, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Samdani Foundation, Dhaka; Sammlung Goetz, Munich.