Haris Epaminonda: VOL. XVI

Curator: Xavier Franceschi

Frac île-de-france is presenting the first solo exhibition in France by Haris Epaminonda at le plateau.
The work of the Cyprus-born artist, who currently lives and works in Berlin, comprises mainly films, sculptures and installations that incorporate images and objects borrowed from various origins and epochs, staging multiple encounters while cultivating an explicit relationship with the past. Epaminonda’s approach is characterised by a careful choice of objects and meticulous presentations. The fact that her exhibits are taken from contexts that can be inferred by the observer, but are never explicitly revealed, contributes to their intrinsic strangeness. Pages of old books, vases or statuettes are put into relation through visual associations and form a fictional space. Shown as they are—as readymades, essentially—they appear like elements of an interrupted narrative that spectators are encouraged to reconnect.

The exhibition at le plateau marks an important and new step in Epaminonda’s practice, which, as the title suggests, shall be seen as one large work building up over time through different volumes and chapters. For this occasion the artist has devised an extensive environment that occupies the cleared spaces of le plateau with a series of cubicles, platforms and screens conceived as both sculptures and presentation devices. Including other elements, films and sound, the whole set exceeds the exhibition space itself with parallel and temporary appearances connecting the inside and outside of le plateau: these performed interventions shape a kind of inhabited archipelago in constant evolution. By condensing the different angles of her approach, in which the idea of travelling and movement in time and space plays a fundamental role, the exhibition as a whole offers a unique opportunity for a simultaneously sculptural, spatial and filmic experience.

Born in 1980 in Cyprus (Nicosia), Haris Epaminonda lives and works in Berlin. Her work was exhibited in solo exhibitions in numerous international art venues, including Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); Schirn Kunsthalle, Franckfurt (2011); Tate Modern, London (2010); and Malmö Konsthall (2009). Co-representing Cyprus at the Venice Biennale in 2007, she took part in dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012), the 2nd Athens Biennale (2009) and the 5th Berlin Biennale (2008).