The exhibition “Éveillée“, presented at the contemporary art center Passages, is a captivating creation by French artist Mélanie Matranga. On view until December 16, 2023, it invites the public to immerse themselves in a multi-faceted body of work with multiple interpretations. This spellbinding presentation transports visitors into a dreamlike world, thanks to the richness of its animated composition.
Mélanie Matranga is a French contemporary artist renowned for her multidisciplinary work, which encompasses sculpture, painting, installation and video, among others. A 2011 graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Mélanie Matranga was born in Marseille in 1985. In 2014, she won the Frieze Artist Award and was nominated for the Ricard Corporate Foundation Prize the same year. She also won the Aware Award in 2018 and is represented by the galleries High Art (Paris, Arles, FR) and Karma International (Zurich, CH).
The “Awakened” exhibition presents itself as a captivating experience for the public, who remain suspended to the various elements used by the artist to convey her idea. Forms, images, sounds and impalpable situations are skilfully combined to communicate a message. This combination of elegance and unease allows us to experience a whole range of sensations, from lethargy to nightmare to dream. In her artistic representation, Mélanie Matranga proposes utopian and political characters, offering a sometimes very precise and direct resonance with viewers. The exhibition can also be interpreted in a variety of ways, with the richness of the pieces included acting as both transmitter and receiver, creating links between ourselves.
She uses language as a witness, which she approaches with re-appropriations such as personal narratives, pieces of music, among others, or direct messages incorporated into her works. Through her luminous vision and architecture, she transforms her relationship with space, apprehending it sensitively. As a result, Mélanie Matranga disrupts the natural order of the visit, accentuating the fictional sensation offered by the exploration of the “Awakened” exhibition route. Her multidisciplinary practice has been presented in several monographic exhibitions, including at Palais de Tokyo (2015), Villa Vassiliev (2018), Tongewölbe T25 (Ingolstadt), Indipendenza (Rome), Artists Space (New York), Museum Ludwig (Cologne), as well as in galleries in France and Switzerland.