“I use emotional structures more than formal structures, emotions generated by listening to music, the awkwardness caused by seeing an erotic scene in a public space without expecting it… I take very convoluted routes like these structures to express something without ever truly being able to.” Mélanie Matranga

Ever loyal to its mission to promote young French artistic creation, Palais de Tokyo is presenting the first significant solo show by French artist Mélanie Matranga (born in 1985, lives in Paris).

Her exhibition articulates several environments, several moments, through an ambitious set of works and architectural elements: two large mezzanines, a smoking room made in silicone, paper lights and loudspeakers, photographic prints and drawings that cover several walls. Mélanie Matranga combines signs that reflect upon interiority with elements linked to social attitudes and habits. Together, they make up places where the singular is expressed by the common, and where intimateness is uncovered, exposed. They are places to be lonely with others.

“By working on clichés on youth, their representation and their supposedly passive narcissism, Mélanie Matranga plays with the visitor’s attention and humour; this way she creates holes in the systems of representations we take for granted.” (Benjamin Thorel and Thomas Boutoux, curators)

The title of the show is in Mandarin, 反复, pronounced [fanfu] – and means, “again and again.” Intentionally elusive, it participates in the creation of a particular atmosphere, of a state of uncertainty; it then echoes the characters in a short film of the same name by Mélanie Matranga, which is presented in the exhibition.

A monographic book published by Palais de Tokyo is accompanying this show.

CURATORS: Benjamin Thorel and Thomas Boutoux

Biography

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Born in Marseille in 1985, Mélanie Matranga lives in Paris, where she graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA).
She was amongst the artists selected for the Prix de la Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard in 2014 , and was the inaugural winner of the Frieze Artist Award. She is represented by the Karma International gallery in Zurich, where she presented the exhibition titled A perspective, somehow, in early 2015.