Anne Imhof's 'Natures Mortes' Transforms Palais de Tokyo into Nocturnal Landscape

Anne Imhof (born 1978, Giessen) presents her first museum solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, titled 'Natures Mortes' (October 21-24, 2021). The show transforms the museum into a nocturnal, underground space with exposed walls, mattresses on the floor, low lighting, and speakers moving on ceiling tracks. Imhof curates works by artists who have inspired her, including Mike Kelley, Francis Picabia, Eva Hesse, Théodore Géricault, Sigmar Polke, Piranesi, Cy Twombly, Elaine Sturtevant, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gordon Matta-Clark, David Hammons, and Joan Mitchell. Her collaborator and muse Eliza Douglas contributes paintings, videos, and music. The exhibition features Passage (2021), a glass-slab tunnel; a black leather jacket hung on a wall with a pile of sugar beneath (2020); a boxing bag (2016); a gilded bronze helmet; and videos including Wave (2021), Faust (2017), Sex (2019), and Deathwish (2021). The show blends performance, sculpture, video, and painting, exploring themes of nightlife, street culture, vanitas, and the absurdity of life. Imhof's work is presented in dialogue with historical pieces, creating a fragmented self-portrait.