MUSEmemoirs

Info:

• Dates: 17.03.24 – 24.11.24
• Curator: Anne Stenne
• Where: Punta della Dogana – Pinault Collection
• Price: 18 euros/ 15-7 euros reduced

Punta della Dogana, the Venetian location for the French Pinault Collection, presents Liminal, a solo exhibition by Pierre Huyghe, held in parternship with Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art. Known for immersive and thought-provoking work, Huyghe constructs an immersive experience that leads visitors beyond the reality, inviting them into a boundary-crossing journey from the moment they enter the space.

The exhibition unfolds in the darkness, across the two floors of Punta della Dogana. New works are blended with creations from the past decade of the artist’s career. Huyghe engages with the interface between human and non-human, crafting pieces that evolve in real-time, responding to visitors’ movements and the environment. Liminal (2024), the work that welcomes the visitor, embodies this concept perfectly: a faceless human figure wanders in an endless, decontextualized landscape. The image is continuously generated and reacts to sensors in the space, shifting in response to the environment: the piece is fascinating also thanks to theprojection, which emerges ethereal in the space, subtly floating within the dark, almost imperceptibly.

A key piece in the exhibition, Human Mask (2014), is a haunting 19-minute film set in abandoned Fukushima, where a monkey wearing a human mask errands in an empty restaurant. The silence and visible abandonment evoke a mix of unease and empathy. Following the monkey’s repetitive, aimless actions as it drifts from one empty room to another, viewers may sense an unfulfilled anticipation, as if both they and the monkey await something that will never come.

Huyghe’s work plays with ambiguity and reinterpretation, to force curiosity and engaging viewers to delve into deeper observation. Another example is De-extinction a short film from 2014 where, through the use of micro-cameras, Huyghe guide the visitor in a trip inside an ancient piece of amber stone. Time here is completely frozen, and the video is silent, punctuated only by white sounds that evoke an alien world. The vision of a sort of sci-fi universe is suddenly interrumpted when we spot two insects, crystallized in the stone, in the act of reproduction. They are two of the most ancient insects ever found, dating back to one million years ago. Between science and a trompe-d’oeil, the artist succedes to project us in a timeless realm.

Liminal calls for a calm and contemplative engagement, to feel the atmosphere created. The exhibition isn’t too large, allowing more concentration on each piece and potentially attracting a broader audience. The contrast between the historic architecture and Huyghe’s futuristic visuals creates a mystic setting.

My personal highlights:

• Human Mask (2014)
• Liminal (2024)
• Zoodram 6 (2013)