Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps

Annette Messager, born in 1943 in Berck-sur-Mer, is today one of the most internationally recognized contemporary French artists. She was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2005, and the Centre Pompidou devoted a major retrospective exhibition to her in 2007, which was subsequently presented in several other museums around the world (Tokyo, Seoul). More recently, her work was exhibited at LaM, taking over the Lille Métropole Museum of Modern Art for a major exhibition in 2022. She combines a wide range of techniques (cut-outs, collage, painting, photography, writing, embroidery) and all kinds of unusual materials (stuffed animals, taxidermied animals, fabrics, photographs, etc.). Her work draws on diverse influences, from popular imagery to outsider and academic art, creating a subtle duality. Constantly blending realism and fantasy, she explores questions of identity and interrogates the condition of women.  

The exhibition offers a unique insight into the work of Annette Messager: although her art has been widely studied around the world, this specific aspect of the animal figure has never before been explored in such depth. Curated by Colin Lemoine, the exhibition presents an original dialogue between the artist’s personal collections and those of the museum. Through monumental installations as well as iconic or previously unseen pieces, Annette Messager alternately brings together macrocosm and microcosm, spectacle and intimacy, drama and humor, words and images. The animals she stages become mirrors of our humanity: they parody our behaviors, mimic our excesses, and embody our desires and vices. The exhibition reveals a world in which these animals, as fascinating as they are unsettling, become infinite reservoirs of passions and impulses. Thus, through her singular perspective, Annette Messager transforms the contemplation of animals into a deeply human experience.