Manon Harrois's solo exhibition at Galeria Foco in Lisbon.
Manon Harrois: Não Faz Mal
7 November - 21 December, 2024
Galeria Foco , Lisbon
Seduction and other exercises
It’s always risky to play with space.
To stretch or cut the tissues of proximities and distances. To insert, either forcefully or not, a presence, or to carve out an absence. To narrow or expand the gap required for a breath. These are only some among all possible interventions. Playing with space is never simply an unsuspecting, naïve search, or a disengaged observation through a detached gaze. Almost inevitably, it is an attempt of a grasp, of taking hold, even if unaware, a chase, a subtle hunt, an escalation to a trap, an aim for occupation.
Sometimes it’s risky even to just move through it: negotiating closeness and retreat, the rhythm of approaching and receding, swaying in a more or less bold, more or less delicate walk on a tightrope – a continuous choice between lure and fear.
Space here, of course, is not a mere expanse, but a relation: an architecture built on the submerged topography of affects. There’s a persistent ambiguity to such a space, its shifting map and the inversions of the so called «in» and «out» (the malleable boundaries between the «I» and «you», a
touch and a grip).
So, that’s a space that can’t really be pursued or tamed. Like «the sea that treats everything and everyone the same» [ o mar trata tudo por igual ]: an engulfing subaquatic maze formed, at its base, by an endless opening – «the mouth of the wind» [ a boca do vento ], a passage free of consequences and intent.
But it is only in the openings as volatile sites of capture and exchange – mouths that both terrify and enchant, exposed bodies that can equally invite and repel, the alternating entry exit points of not only viscera and surfaces, but of their extra and meta-physical spread – where an encounter can take place. Within this mutable terrain of risk, it is the balancing act of choreography of freedom – tempt while release, eject while embrace – what sustains the space.
Text: Maša Tomšič
Manon Harrois (b. 1988) lives and works in Troyes (France). She studied at ENSAAMA in Paris and was awarded the Académie Française’s Jean Walter Zellidja research prize for her research. Harrois spent a year in the Sahara desert, Niger, with Tuareg and Fulani people. Presented in 2014 by Gilles Fuchs, she exhibited at La Galerie Premier Regard. Her research was supported since 2009 until today by Germain Viatte. Harrois´s work is described by the artist as a series of experiences that seek to settle into a territory of multiple interconnections, gestures and mediums.
It has been regularly presented in France and abroad in venues such as Second Room Antwerp (2024), Galerie Kai Erdmann, BERLIN (2022); RL52, Berlin (2022); Fundação Dom Luís, Cascais, Portugal (2022); Zuostant, Berlin (2022); UMPRUM, Prague (2022), SixtyEight Art Institute, Copenhagen (2022), Galeria Foco, Lisbon (2023), Spoiler zone, Berlin (2023).
She has also collaborated extensively with Sara Bichão, namely within the context of Bienal AnoZero, Coimbra (2017), and exhibitions such as “Clorophilia” at Porta 33, Madeira (2020-2021) and “Sonic Geometry” at Arquipélago – Centro de Artes, Açores (2018); MAC Valdivia, Chile (2017). Harrois has also completed several artistic residencies: Residency Unlimited, NYC (2014); MAC Valdivia, Chile (2015); Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates (2016); CNCM Césaré, Reims (2015-2018); CAMAC, Marnay sur Seine (2016); Artiste en résidence, Clermont Ferrand (2017); CAC/ Passages, Troyes (2014 -2019); PORTA 33, Madeira, Portugal (2019); FRAC Champagne Ardenne
(2020).
Her work was supported by the DRAC Grand Est, the Région Grand Est, the CNAP (2021-2022) and has entered the public collection of the FRAC Champagne Ardenne (2021). It is also represented in several private collections. To create this new body of work, Harrois has been in residency this year in Air351, Cascais in Portugal and in Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milano in Italy with the support of the Region Grand Est.
Photo: Photodocumenta