The first site-specific installation for the Light Hall in Norway’s new National Museum has been unveiled by Laure Prouvost, winner of the 2013 Turner Prize.
Above Front Tears Oui Float is an immersive installation including film, sound, performance, sculptures, textile and text. The boundaries between fiction and reality are blurred and Prouvost refers to art historical and religious motifs such as ancient fountains, the archetypal cave, animals and other than humans, birds and fish. The exhibition has a seriousness with consideration for nature, environmental challenges, migration and the pandemic, conveyed with warmth and absurd humour.
She is the first artist to receive the Fredriksen Family Commission for the new National Museum. This series of five biennial commissions over 10 years will enable large-scale works by leading international artists to be seen in Norway for the first time. Each artist will be invited to create a work or an installation for the Light Hall, exploring the possibilities of this unique space.
Karin Hindsbo, the National Museum’s Director says:
We are excited to welcome Laure Prouvost as the first artist to undertake the Light Hall Commission and thankful to the Fredriksen Family for making it possible.
Laure Prouvost said:
It’s definitely the biggest project I have done and a great honour to have this opportunity in such a special building.
@nasjonalmuseet
About the artist
Laure Prouvost was born in Lille, France (1978) and is currently based in Brussels. She received her BFA from Central St Martins, London in 2002 and studied towards her MFA at Goldsmiths College, London. She also took part in the LUX Associate Programme. Laure Prouvost received the MaxMara Art Prize for Women in 2011 and received the prestigious Turner Prize in 2013. She represented France at the Venice Biennale in 2019.
Exhibitions include: We, On The Rising Wave’, Busan Biennale, South Korea (2022); ‘ARS22’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland. Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Deep Travel Ink’, Atelier Hermès, Seoul, South Korea (2022); ‘Our elastic arm hold in tight through the claouds’ at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2021); ‘Re-dit-en-un-in-learning CENTER’ at Lisson Gallery London (2020); ‘Melting into one another ho hot chaud it heating dip’, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, Portugal (2020); ‘Deep See Blue Surrounding You / Vois Ce Bleu Profond Te Fondre’, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France, LAM – Lille métropole, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France (2020), and Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands (2021); ‘AM-BIG-YOU-US LEGSICON’, M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2018); BASS Museum, Miami, FL, USA (2018); ‘They Are Waiting for You’, Performance for stage at the McGuire Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, USA (2018). Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2016); Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2015); New Museum, New York, NY, USA (2014); Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico (2014); Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK and Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2013); ‘Laure Prouvost / Adam Chodzko’ as part of ‘Schwitters in Britain’, Tate Britain, London, UK (2013).
Prouvost represented France at the 58th International Art Biennial Venice, May-November 2019 and was included in ‘NIRIN,’ the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020). June 2019 saw the artist’s first public commission in the UK through Transport for London’s Art on the Underground.
