INTRODUCTION

Règle du jeu presents the new series I did for my Carte blanche PMU prize and exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. I have started to use Fluxus event scores and other instructions artists have written to explain how a piece can be made. The instructions are sufficiently open; nevertheless they propose something precise. I appreciate their funny or weird character, the way they mix poetry and strangeness, in the spirit of dada and surrealism. With these performative, absurd and playful works I turn a new page in my production.

Until recently, I have almost always worked alone. Règle du jeu marks a difference in introducing a second character, a Doppelgänger or a twin sister who executes the images with me. Collaborating with Finnish dancer and choreographer Vera Nevanlinna has been rewarding after years of solitary work.

Even though the photographs in Règle du jeu are recognizable as my works, this new method introduces a healthy detachment. The pictures are humorous and adventurous whilst also questioning the role of the artist, the place of photography and film in performance and the fluid nature of collaboration in art-making in the moment and across decades. This work takes me to new territories and allows me to make discoveries, all while continuing to do what I know best. It enables me to get back both in front and behind the camera.

In her essay, art-historian, professor Abigail Solomon-Godeau situates my work in the feminist tradition and pictorial self-representation. Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, curator of photography at Centre Pompidou, writers abuout play, games, and women’s friendship as important building blocks of the series.

SPECIFICATIONS

Photographs: Elina Brotherus
Design: Caroline Magre, White Papier Studio
Hardcover
19 x 25 cm
113 color photographs
256 pages
Essays: Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska
French / English
Publisher: Filigranes Editions, Paris 2017.
Publication date: September 2017
ISBN: 978-2-35046-428-2