Jimmie Durham Regarde — Michel Rein Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 19 → April 7, 2011

Created for the Lyon Biennale 2009, Regarde is a monumental installation made of scaffolding and CCTV cameras. With this unexpected pairing of objects, the artwork, whilst reflecting the current preoccupations of our society, reveals a punchy sense of humour. Jimmie Durham questions the established order more surely than all the cameras in the world.

For him, “In our lives lived in cities there are many things which are not meant to be noticed; except to negotiate space around them. I love all of these humble objects, such as construction scaffolding. One sees it on practically every city block now. Even more ubiquitous are the surveillance cameras that watch us so neutrally, witnessing our faux pas without comment. When I think, as a sculptor, of what I might make in a public space, I like to see what is available within the everyday world-objects that are so ’normal’ their existence no longer insults anyone; they are almost invisible.”

Hou Hanru, curator of the 10th Lyon Biennale writes: “The scaffolding is gleaming and factory-fresh, the standard equipment you see adorning walls being built or refurbished. The CCTV cameras are usually hidden, intending to keep us under surveillance. Together they add up to a create a strange system: who’s building what, who’s spying on whom?“