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ANNETTE MESSAGER COLLECTIONEUSE: MA VIE ILLUSTRÉE19-25.04.1974
galerie s:t petri
s:t petri kyrkogata 5 — fack 7 — 22101 lund 1 — sweden — tel 046-147800
During one week, April 19–25, 1974, Galerie S:t Petri presents works by the French artist Annette Messager.
In her typically feminine world, we encounter various things that surround women. The intention is to criticize man’s dominant position in society. Through her skillful and balanced reasoning, the man seems constantly to wish to confine the woman to a role resembling that of a prisoner.
This is one of the reasons why Annette Messager has not wanted to speak about her situation as a woman. Instead, she has chosen to visualize it through knitted objects, pattern cuttings, collected items, etc. Her works further reinforce the questioning of the identities imposed upon women — for example, through commercialization. Her works do not theorize about the woman, nor do they offer solutions or clarifications, but rather aim to act as a source of unease.
It is as a collector that we meet Annette Messager in her first Swedish solo exhibition. Pictures and texts are assembled in notebooks entitled “The Collector Annette Messager.”
The exhibition consists of three parts.
The first, called “Voluntary Torture,” consists of press photographs of women treating their bodies in rather frightening ways.
The second, titled “My Life in Illustrations,” includes drawings and photographs from various magazines assembled in such a way that they appear extremely personal.
The third part, finally, is called “How My Friends Would Make My Portrait” and consists of a number of life-drawing sketches.
Already a year ago, Annette Messager’s work was presented for the first time in Scandinavia at Galerie S:t Petri, in a group exhibition titled “Sequence.” Together with Daner Gallery in Copenhagen, Galerie S:t Petri is now finally showing her works in a solo exhibition.
Annette Messager has often exhibited on the continent — among others in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and France.
The exhibition is open weekdays 3–8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 12–5 p.m.
