First monograph dedicated to French artist, videographer, performer and poet Julien Creuzet.
Julien Creuzet links forgotten, minority histories and imaginary representations of distant places with the social realities of the here and now. His exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, which visit is rhythmed by a soundtrack composed specifically for it, takes the form of an immersive environment akin to a large public space suffused with the permanent state of tension that characterizes our era. It presents a multiplicity of different works and offers an array of disjointed narratives. Preferring anachronism to the linearity of established stories, Creuzet thus invokes poetry and politics to unfold a mobile imaginary that brings together different temporalities and geographies.
Published on the occasion of Julien Creuzet's solo show at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, from February 20 to May 12, 2019.
Published in cooperation with Les presses du réel, this series of monographic books accompanies the Palais de Tokyo's exhibition program. Richly illustrated, with many views of the exhibition, accessible to all, each book will offer the reader an extended experience of the encounter with the artists' work. The artists' words will appear alongside original contributions by theoreticians, art critics, and curators, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of each artist's background and of the genesis of their project for the Palais de Tokyo. These books will allow the reader to follow the evolution of the artists' reflection on their work. Reproductions of artworks, preparatory documents, visual references, and studio views will bear witness to each step in the artist's process and accompany interviews and essays.
Eva Barois De Caevel is an independent curator. She is in charge of publications at RAW Material Company—Center for Art Knowledge and Society (Dakar).
Dorothée Dupuis is a curator, art critic and publisher. She is the founder and editor in chief of the magazine Terremoto.mx.
Yoann Gourmel is a curator at the Palais de Tokyo. He curated Julien Creuzet's solo show.
Julien Creuzet (born 1986 in Blanc-Mesnil, lives and works in Fontenay-sous-Bois) is a visual artist, video-maker, performer and poet. Via environments made up of composite series, he explores different cultural heritages by organising passageways between imaginaries of elsewhere, the social realities of here and now, and forgotten minority histories. By associating different temporalities and geographies, and preferring anachronisms and collusion over the simplicity of established tales, Julien Creuzet evokes registers of life and technology, history and myth, poetry and politics, to deploy disparate stories of hybrid creatures and swampy zones repossessed and contradicted by imperious civilisations' desires for power and expansion.
Julien Creuzet has been given several solo shows, including recently at the VR Arles Festival as part of the Palais de Tokyo's off-site exhibition during the Rencontres d'Arles (2018), at the Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard and Bétonsalon – centre d'art et de recherche (Paris, 2018), the gallery NaMiMa at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art et de Design in Nancy (2016) and at the Frac Basse-Normandie (Caen, 2015). His work has also been presented in a large number of group shows: "Aujourd'hui aura lieu", the Palais de Tokyo's off-site exhibition during the 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018), "A Cris Ouverts", the 6th edition of the Ateliers de Rennes, Biennale d'Art Contemporain (2018), the Rencontres de Bamako, 11th Biennale Africaine de la Photographie (2017), the 14th Biennale de Lyon (2017), at the Frac Pays de la Loire (Carquefou, 2016) or else at La Galerie, Centre d'Art Contemporain (Noisy-le-Sec, 2015).
