Pippa Garner, Adelhyd van Bender, Claire Pentecost / Marine  Frœliger: Degrés Est

Pippa Garner, Adelhyd van Bender, Claire Pentecost
What do a departure from binary thinking, the search for an atomic secret, and a decaying work of art have in common? All three take contradictory demands and desires propagated by society as starting points to rethink the relationship between the human body and its environment: an ecology of relationships we must reinvent.

Three artists’ individual presentations will coexist within the premises of 49 Nord 6 Est on this exceptional occasion. Pippa Garner (1942, Evanston, US) is an inventor, photographer, and performer. She redirects whatever she sees and whatever she uses, rejecting categories of all kind—including those related to gender. Having embarked on a quest for an atomic formula potentially nested within his own body, Adelhyd van Bender (1950–2014, Berlin, Germany) stubbornly produced works on paper in an inquiry that blends an ecological threat and irrationality. As for Claire Pentecost (1956, Baltimore, US), she has composted an American flag, initiating a process of degradation in which the soil feeds on a symbol. This fragile work from the Frac’s collection was studied for a year at the Institut National du Patrimoine; the accompanying research is presented alongside the piece, placing it in a new light.

These works explore thresholds, at the junction between invention and rejection of consumer society (P. Garner), between body and physics formula (A. van Bender), between earth and nation (C. Pentecost). All of them open unexpected perspectives. In a society based on the cult of innovation, they question with humor—and at times self-deprecation—the means at our disposal to build a future.

Degrés Est: Marine Frœliger
Marine Frœliger (1987, Strasbourg) is an artist, curator and mediator—a singular profile invited to occupy the Degrés Est space. The artist invites us here to a paradoxical meditative experiment and invites visitors to take the time to “inhabit” the space of the exhibition. 

Events
Handpoke tattoo session: March 4–April 1
With tattoo artist Ginger

Subjective visits: March 15–June 14
With mechanics enthusiasts

Panel discussion: March 23, 7pm
“Nature is queer!” with Avec Elise Lammer, Cy Lecerf Maulpoix, Claire Lahuerta

Workshop: April 11, 6pm
“Transidentity awareness” with Mika Alison, teacher and author

Concert-Installation: July 1, 8pm
With the band Bruine

Credits 
The exhibitions of Adelhyd van Bender, Marine Frœliger and Claire Pentecost are curated by Fanny Gonella, director of the 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine, in collaboration with Sophie Potelon, head of programs. The exhibition Pippa Garner is co-curated by the New York based author Fiona Alison Duncan, Maurin Dietrich, Director of the Kunstverein München, and Fanny Gonella. First shown at Kunstverein München in 2022, it is the artist’s first European solo exhibition. Her work is simultaneously on view at the Kunsthalle Zürich from February 4 to May 14, 2023.

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