18 Woodstock Street

London W1C 2AL

+44 (0)20 7495 1969

www.parafin.co.uk

info@parafin.co.uk

@parafinlondon

Art Fairs — 2022

Parafin will return to Photo London in 2022 presenting a solo booth by Melanie Manchot (b.1966) focussing on her use of photography and her ongoing engagement with forms of portraiture. The presentation will showcase work from across Manchot’s career, including many pieces that have never been previously exhibited.

Known primarily as an artist working with moving images, Manchot first came to prominence in the 1990s for a ground-breaking series of naked photographic portraits of her mother. She says:

‘Photography is the backbone to everything I do and to how I think visually. I would suggest that most of my moving-image works, whether film or video, are strongly informed by photography – conceptually, aesthetically, in terms of their sense of time and duration. Cameras, whether still or moving, are crucial devices shaping the construction of the work. To me, cameras are not simply machines that generate the images I wish to make; more importantly, they are an organizing principle, an apparatus that becomes part of a set of relations I wish to create.’

Manchot’s diverse and research-driven practice employs photography, video, film and sound. Her long-standing areas of enquiry range from portraiture to participation and performance, to questions of individual and collective identities, and to the exploration of the very particular socio-economic and ecological microclimate of a specific alpine mountain and its community.  Situated at the threshold between the documentary and staged events, Manchot’s work frequently involves an engagement with strangers.

Photo London

Melanie Manchot

12 – 15 May 2022

Introduction

Selected Works

Melanie Manchot

Biography

Since 1997 Melanie Manchot has exhibited internationally. Manchot’s diverse and research-driven practice employs a range of media including performance, photography, video, film and sound. Her long-standing areas of enquiry range from portraiture to participation, and to questions of individual and collective identities. Situated at the threshold between the documentary and staged events, Manchot’s work frequently involves an engagement with strangers.

Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Mountainworks’, BTV Stadtforum, Innsbruck (2019), ‘Open Ended Now’, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland (2019), ‘Open Ended Now’, MAC/VAL, Paris, France (2018), ‘White Light Black Snow’, Parafin, London, UK (2018), Dance ‘Dance (All Night, London)’, Art Night, London (2017), ‘People Places Propositions’, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne (2016), ‘11/18’, fig-2 at the ICA, London (2015), ‘Dance (All Night, Paris)’, Nuit Blanche, Paris (2011) and ‘Celebration (Cyprus Street)’, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010). Important recent group exhibitions include ‘Actions’, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2017), the Marl Media Arts Awards at Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, Germany (2016), ‘Group Therapy’, FACT, Liverpool (2015), ‘The Rhythm Is...’, Museum Folkwang, Essen (2014), ‘Situations’, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Paris (2012), ‘Wunder’, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2011), and ‘Global Feminisms’ at the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2007). Manchot’s work is included in important public and private collections including the Arts Council Collection, London, FMAC, Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain, Paris and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Contact

Links