The Palais de Tokyo welcomes the artist Michaela Eichwald, winner of the Prix Lafayette 2012 for her first solo exhibition in France.

Born in 1967, Michaela Eichwald spent many years living in Cologne where she was part of a group of artists and intellectuals. First she studied literature and philosophy before setting out to create visual artworks, thereafter dedicating herself solely to her artistic practice. The year 2008 represents a turning point for Michaela Eichwald with her decision to move to Berlin. Soon she wanted to leave again but she still lives and works there today. In the last few years, her work was presented in many exhibitions both solo and collective, in Germany and abroad, among which: “Knotti Times,” Silberkuppe (Berlin, 2013); “Ergriffenes Dasein. Artist, Writer, Mentalist,” Reena Spaulings (New York, 2013); “KW69 #7 Kalin Lindena,” Kunstwerke Berlin (2011); “The White Columns Annual,” White Columns (New York, 2011).

Operating in a realm bordering on the underground, Michaela Eichwald is developing a multifarious body of work that associates her artistic practice and writing. Her paintings, collages and sculptures in various formats and created using an array of materials (paper, fabric, objects, etc.) form larger groups in which each piece exists in its own right. By superimposing layers of paint and covering surfaces in resin and varnish, the artist summons the materials and engages in a process where her own subjectivity is in a permanent dialogue with experimentation.

The forms she creates are the result of emotional states, of particular moments but also phases where words take part in the artwork’s elaboration through writing and poetry. On her blog, uhutrust.com, the artist gives a daily account of her wanderings, thoughts, observations and reactions to current events. On it she publishes photos she’s taken or that she’s found online. She sometimes describes the steps in the work she is momentarily involved with. Like a logbook to be publicly shared, uhutrust.com attests the artist’s view of the world. Michaela Eichwald is engaged in a reflection on the art world and its workings. How can an artist exist and live? How can one create and produce, and in what conditions? For her, moments of creativity are the result of a particular situation and context such as, for example, the availability of a workspace or the outcome of an intellectual discussion. It’s a sum of factors that must be reinvented case by case, precipitating the necessary alchemy for the artwork to be made.

For her exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, the artist has created new pieces in which she explores, the moment, the white page represented by the few weeks leading up to the exhibition, free from any constraint.

Curator: Katell Jaffrès