Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz upset normative historical narratives and conventions of spectatorship, as figures and actions across time are staged, layered and re-imagined. 

Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz have been working together in Berlin since 2007. They produce installations that choreograph the tension between visibility and opacity. Their films capture performances in front of the camera, often starting with a song, a picture, a film or a score from the near past. They upset normative historical narratives and conventions of spectatorship, as figures and actions across time are staged, layered and re-imagined. Their performers are choreographers, artists and musicians, with whom they are having a long-term conversation about the conditions of performance, the violent history of visibility, the pathologization of bodies, but also about companionship, glamour and resistance.

 

Their recent work, "Les Gayrillères", featuring choreographers/performers Harry Alexander, Julie Cunningham, Werner Hirsch, Nach, Joy Alpuerto Ritter, Aaliyah Thanisha, premiered at Whitechapel Gallery London. "(No) Time", featuring choreographers/performers Julie Cunningham, Werner Hirsch, Joy Alpuerto Ritter, Aaliyah Thanisha premiered at Frac Bretagne and was shown at Seoul Mediacity Biennale and Museo CA2M in Madrid. "Moving Backwards", featuring choreographers/ performers Latifa Laâbissi, Werner Hirsch, Julie Cunningham, Marbles Jumbo Radio and Nach premiered at the Swiss Pavillon of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 and will be shown next year at Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Telepathic Improvisation" with performance by Marwa Arsanios, MPA, Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Werner Hirsch, premiered in 2017 at Participant, New York, and was shown at the Hammer Museum in "Witch Hunt" in 2021. 

 

Recent solo exhibitions have included "Glass is my Skin" at Palacio de Cristal | Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2022-23);  "Portrait of a Movement" at Museo Centreo de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid (2022); "(No) Time" at Frac Bretagne (2021), "Ongoing Experiments with Strangeness" at the Julia Stoschek Collection (2019), Berlin; "Telepathic Improvisation" at the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (2018) and CAMH Houston (2017); "Portrait of an Eye" at Kunsthalle Zürich (2015);  "Loving, Repeating" at Kunsthalle Wien (2015) "Patriarchal Poetry" at Badischer Kunstverein (2013), "Aftershow" at CAPC Bordeaux (2013), "Toxic Play in Two Acts" at South London Gallery (2012), and "Contagieux! Rapports contre la normalité" at the Centre d´Art Contemporain Geneva (2011).  

 

Their work has been written about by writers and critics including Elisabeth Lebovici, Andre Lepecki, Mason Leaver-Yap, Elisabeth Lebovici, Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Gregg Bordowitz, Antke Engel, Nana Adusei-Poku, Mathias Danbolt, Ellen Feiss or Laura Guy. Their most recent catalogue "Stages" (2022) was published by Spector Books, "Moving Backwards" (2019) was published by Skira, "Telepathic Improvisation" (2018) was published by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, "I Want" was published by Sternberg Press (2016), "Aftershow" was published by Sternberg Press (2014).