Marie Losier

Born in 1972 in Boulogne-Billancourt (France), she lives and works in Paris and New York.

Artist assistant: Simon Fravega

In her wake, Marie Losier leaves smiles and feelings of wanting to jump. Childish urges that are moments of joy. She constructs her art work spontaneously through portraits of lifelong friends, a chosen family made up of free-thinkers, creators and eccentrics who invent their own lives far from norms and rules, like Tony Conrad, Alan Vega, Genesis P-Orridge or Felix Kubin. Jumping on a bed wearing a pink nightie and a pumpkin suit, eating a scarlet flower whilst wearing a swimming cap or starting a mackerel fight on the deck of ferry, her films' characters are half-fictional representations of underground icons, having fun.

The exhibition is thought out like an extension of her cinematographic and documentary universe. The artist, like an archaeologist of her own work, has chosen unseen excerpts from her rushes, unedited views from projects to-come in order to create boxes of pictures, kinds of magic lanterns or photographic kamishibais. Less known to the public, her monotypes are also portraits of her close family and friends. In black and white, on large pieces of rice-paper, Marie Losier keeps showing day to day life and eccentricity but a certain seriousness arises from her stroke. A disturbing counterpoint that brings a new strength and lighting onto her work. The exhibition space becomes a set in which sketches communicate with an orchestra of eagle owls, a mural confronts screenings whereas music – ever-present in the artist's work – pervades the atmosphere. Between the magic of a fun-fair, the imaginary of a childhood tree-house and the magic of a disused cinematograph, the dreaminess of Marie Losier's work fills the BBB. Hello Happiness!

Marie Losier studied literature at the Université de Nanterre and Fine Art in New York. Her films are based on a bond of confidence and friendship that allows for any folly or eccentricity. They explore life and works by artists that lie far from biographical or factual conventions in order to concentrate on pleasure, dreams and a sublimation of everyday life. She thus creates portraits for directors, musicians and composers such as George Kuchar, Guy Maddin, Richard Foreman, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge. Her films are regularly presented at festivals (Berlin, Rotterdam, Tribeca etc.) and in museums such as the Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum, the Centre Pompidou or the MoMA. For her film Cassandro the Exótico! she was awarded The Guggenheim Award in 2018.

Saturday 22 September – a series of events linked to Marie Losier's work:

— 1:30pm: meeting and screening of Cassandro the Exótico! at the American Cosmograph (see cinema's rates)

— 5:30pm: exhibition tour with the artist and curator Émilie Flory at the BBB centre d'art

— 7pm: screening of a selection of Mexican films by La Forêt Électrique at the Halles de La Cartoucherie

— 8:30pm: proposed by Les Soirées Nomades of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, a wrestling match with Cassandro el Exótico at La Cartoucherie.