paola
siri renard
Paola Siri Renard’s sculptures are micro-architectures through which any individual can reclaim imperceptible architectural, cultural and normative realities via bodily experiments. Enlightened as much as distorted, they reveal formal grids and political structures which shape spaces and condition social interactions insidiously. Her transcription process isolates and rescales generic ornaments, bestowing upon them an autonomy that is stripped from their initial context. They acquire their own (dys)functionality. The anachronistic symbolism creates interfaces that undermine Western architectural orders. Paola Siri Renard reveals normative aesthetic codes spreading throughout centuries, in parallel with injunctions that neglect bodies ; echoing the history of her Martinican and Swedish roots. Natural processes such as sloughing or fossilization interact with immutable ornamental layers, conferring upon them an aura of mutation. Emanating from this encounter, the metamorphic shapes of her test-instruments suggest imaginary displacement engines. Physical reappropriations of these besieging architectural growths question the treatment of designed heritage through the correlation between its circulation and the exclusionary underpinnings of specific identities.
education
2018-2020_Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, DE_Professors Rita MCBRIDE, Koenraad DEDOBBELEER, Gregor SCHNEIDER
2017_MFA (DNSAP), École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (ENSBA), Paris, FR_Ateliers Ann Veronica JANSSENS, Emmanuel SAULNIER
2016_Exchange Program, Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku), Tokyo, JP_Studios HACHIYA Kazuhiko, KAWASAKI Yoshihiro
2015_BFA (DNAP), École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (ENSBA), Paris, FR_Atelier Ann Veronica JANSSENS
residencies
2024 WIELS Residency, Brussels, BE (ongoing)
2022-2023 HISK - Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent and Brussels, BE
2021 RAVI - Résidences-Ateliers Vivegnis International, Liège, BE
2017 Nobuyuki Fujiwara Design Glass Studio, Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, Tokyo, JP
2017 La Maladresse, choreographed by Mylène Benoît, Villa Kujoyama, Kyoto, JP
2016 Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts plastiques (CIRVA), with the support of the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, Marseille, FR
selected publications
2023 Wandelgids / Walking Guide, Publiek Park, Antwerp, BE
2022 Super Feelings, poems edition, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL_Douze Preuves d’Amour - 9ème Bourse Révélations Emerige, exhibition catalogue, text by Aurélie Faure, Paris, FR
2022 HISK Editions, embossed papers, Brussels, BE - collection Friends of S.M.A.K., Ghent, BE
2021 POSTWENDEND, Kunstverein MISCHPOKE e.V., exhibition catalogue, Mönchengladbach, DE
2018 FELICITÀ 18, exhibition catalogue, interview by Elisa Rigoulet, Beaux-Arts de Paris Les Éditions, Paris, FR
2018 RATAFIA, exhibition catalogue, Récit Éditions, Paris, FR
solo exhibitions
2024 Im Kabinett der Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, curated by Nico Anklam, Recklinghausen, DE
2023 Subcutanean Ghosts, curated by Joachim Coucke, Dash, Kortrijk, BE
2022 -what will you be then Oneiroi? -glamour, curated by the Curatorial Programme, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL
2021 Armour Leftovers, RAVI: Résidences-Ateliers Vivegnis International, Liège, BE
2019 Love to details (WHO MEANS WELL?), Oberbilker Allee 57, Düsseldorf, DE
2017 Extentio, Beaux-Arts de Paris (ENSBA), Paris, FR
2016 As Long As You Can Walk, Tokyo GEIDAI, Toride, JP2015
