Laure Prouvost
The multilayered, two-part project Laure Prouvost: They Are Waiting for You was composed of a new installation presented in the gallery (October 12, 2017–February 11, 2018) and a theatrical performance work, co-commissioned and coproduced by the Walker and EMPAC, Troy, New York (February 9–10, 2018). For the gallery installation, conceptual artist Laure Prouvost (France, b. 1978) combined a new moving image work with painting, sculpture, and found objects, which were arranged in a “waiting room” outside a central video space. The resulting environment, interspersed with spoken and written instructions, drew visitors into a space of shifting terrain that conflated reality with fiction and art with everyday life.
The theatrical performance, also titled They Are Waiting for You (2018), drew on similar thematic elements. Conceived as Prouvost’s first major production for the stage, the show unfolded with complex and humorous stories in which fact and fiction were interwoven, challenging conventions on how we shape our life histories. The result was an experimental mash-up of video work, dance, immersive stage décor, and choral music. For this project Prouvost was joined by artist Sam Belinfante, dance artist and choreographer Pierre Droulers, percussionist Eli Keszler, and additional musicians and performers from Minnesota and New York. Following the exhibition and performance, the Walker acquired DIT LEARN (2017)—the video work that anchored both gallery and stage projects—for the collection.
Projects
- Laure Provoust: They Are Waiting for You
- Laure Provoust: They Are Waiting for You
- Dit Learn
Learn More
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I CAN SEE A VOICE: The Making of They Are Waiting for You
They Are Waiting for You “muddies the gap between the experience of cinema and theater.” Victoria Brooks, EMPAC’s Curator of Time-Based Visual Art, explores the creative process involved in a recent production residency for Laure Prouvost’s new performance work, commissioned by the Walker Art Center.
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Laure Prouvost’s Artworks Need You to Exist
Mixing sculpture and found objects with sound, text, and moving images, Laure Prouvost’s immersive installation They Are Waiting for You upends the traditional relationship between artwork and viewer, addressing us directly in ways that might feel unfamiliar, even uncomfortable. The work, writes Victoria Sung, demands our complete focus, and threatens to push us out of the room.
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Convoluted Time: Reflections on Laura Prouvost’s They Are Waiting for You
A voice, a woman’s voice, probably the voice of Laure Prouvost, is asking, text is instructing on the screen. Remember that this image means that. An image of a mallet pounding a stake means no. An image of an iguana means yes. So begins filmmaker and writer Kevin Obsatz’s reflection on Provoust’s performance, They Are Waiting for You. Offering a rich description of her piece, Obsatz explores how the artist and her collaborators muddle the lines between live and mediated, present performance and forgotten memories.
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Watch: Laure Prouvost Opening-Day Talk
Artist Laure Prouvost and exhibition curator Victoria Sung discuss Prouvost’s work and the development of They Are Waiting for You, her new immersive installation/exhibition.
