French artist Laure Prouvost’s articulations of grandmotherhood at ACCA

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne, Australia showed the solo exhibition Laure Prouvost: Oui Move In You, which ran from March 23 - June 10, 2024. The show was a part of ACCA’s annual series of shows focusing on prominent artists from around the world. This time around, ACCA presented French artist Laure Prouvost, who works across sculptural art, video art, installation art, painting and more. Oui Move In You combined a decade-long survey of Prouvost’s work with new commissions by ACCA. The exhibition explored filial roles, especially that of the grandmother, along with contemporary social spaces where people engage with nature. The exhibition was co-curated by Max Delany, Artistic Director and CEO of ACCA and Annika Kristensen, Associate Curator, ACCA. Kristensen joins STIR for an interview that explores Prouvost’s articulation of grandmotherhood and connects the exhibition to ACCA’s architecture.

Prouvost’s perspective on the role of the grandmother encompasses spiritual forebears to present a matriarchal identity that paved the way for current generations. As Kristensen explains, “This interest has largely come out of her ongoing use of the protagonists of her grandfather and grandmother, who are recurring conceptual characters across many of her works. At the centre of the art exhibition is a campfire, created for the work Gathering Ho Ma, The glaneuse (2023), where the voices of women from many cultural backgrounds can be heard, sharing memories of their grandmothers.” This artwork has a soundtrack that compliments an installation of objects around the fire. Together, these are meant to pay homage to the artists that the mixed media artist sees as her forebears, including Agnès Varda, Carolee Schneemann, and Louise Bourgeois, among others.

At the centre of the exhibition is a campfire, created for the work 'Gathering Ho Ma, The glaneuse' (2023), where the voices of women from many cultural backgrounds can be heard, sharing memories of their grandmothers. – Annika Kristensen, Associate Curator, ACCA

The campfire for Gathering Ho Ma, The glaneuse was a point of convergence and reflection for the show’s audience. Visitors could enjoy a cup of tea, reminisce about their grandmothers and imagine the maternal ancestors they have descended from. Visitors to ACCA could also read the book H Oma Je (2024), which can be taken as an extension of the exhibition. Kristensen discusses this work, telling STIR, “...we commissioned close to 100 writers, artists, friends and peers to contribute short reflections about their grandmothers [for the book]. One of the contributors, Tony Birch, an esteemed Aboriginal author, academic and activist shares a moving poem about his nanna. This is one of many reflections from writers all over the world, who together reflect more upon the universal importance of grandmothers, matriarchs and intergenerational relationships across cultures, rather than from one cultural viewpoint in particular.”

Oui Move In You’s layout responded to the architecture of ACCA to create a journey through Prouvost’s work. The first artwork in the show was the early piece Wantee (2013), a video installation that tells the story of a character that the artist imagines as her grandfather. Prouvost’s imagined grandfather is a conceptual artist and friend of the late Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). The final work shown at Oui Move In You was Every Sunday, Grand Ma (2022), which features a naked, aged lady sprouting wings and flying over a misty landscape. Like Prouvost’s fictional grandfather, this character has been imagined as the artist’s grandmother and the video installation she is featured in went hand-in-hand with Wantee, bookending the exhibition with two works about grandparents.

Kristensen explains that the exhibition’s layout was also meant to chart a transitional trajectory within Prouvost’s contemporary art, from dark to light, the subterranean to the sky, of the protagonists from grandfathers to grandmothers and as she puts it, “from history to herstory”. On the way, each exhibited artwork was placed within its own distinct environment that extended its subject matter. Oui Move In You served as an enriching opportunity for audiences to acquaint themselves with Prouvost’s artistic practice as well as a much-needed impetus for them to reflect on their forebears and the legacies that they hold.

‘Laure Prouvost: Oui Move In You’ was on from March 23 - June 10 2024 at ACCA, Melbourne.