Description

The exhibition as work of art

The French artist Philippe Parreno rose to prominence in the 1990s. His work embraces a diversity of media, including film, sculpture, performance, and text. For Parreno, the act of exhibiting is also a medium. He redefines the exhibition experience, perceiving it as a coherent ‘object’ rather than as a collection of individual works. The show at the Fondation Beyeler takes its name from Continuously Habitable Zones aka C.H.Z, one of two new films that Parreno presented as part of his exhibit. It shows views of a black garden that the artist created in Portugal together with the landscape architect Bas Smets. The garden is intended to represent a landscape on a world with several suns. Continuously Habitable Zones is a term used in astrobiology, where it refers to planets offering viable conditions for life to grow. Recent scientific studies have shown that life would be more likely to develop on a planet with two or more small suns (dwarf suns) than on a planet with one very bright sun. The catalogue includes contributions by Philippe Parreno and Nancy Spector, in which the ideas behind the show are explored in depth.