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Emmanuel Lagarrigue
Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Still seeing words that never were, 2007
Panneaux de fermacell, haut-parleurs
3 x 900 x 900 cm
Courtesy galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris
Works produced with the assistance of the Printemps de Septembre, the Department of Plastic Arts and the Midi-Pyrenees Regional Contemporary Art Office (Ministry of Culture and Communication)
© Printemps de septembre, photo Philippe Migeat
Born in 1972 in Strasbourg (France), he lives and works in Paris.
Emmanuel Lagarrigue's installations use a spare formal vocabulary, made up almost exclusively of bare wires and loudspeakers. Sound (snippets of conversation, excerpts from books read, songs hummed/cut out/put back together again...) becomes, like light, a sculptural element which shapes the exhibition venue through the interplay of perceptions. The various visual and acoustic features encompass viewers and get them to venture into a completely redeployed space. The voices used by the artist are at times on the borderline of the audible. As elusive summonses playing with a certain form of frustration, they convey the difficulty of listening, and the complexity of the construction of the relation to the other. The levity of these pieces leaves for all and sundry an active place, and permits the development of scenarios where what is shown mingles with what is imagined. These works are productive structures which give rise to an ambiance, and generously invite sensation.