
Paris
“HF | RG”
Musée National du Jeu de Paume
April 7–June 14, 2009
Curated by Chantal Pontbriand
Taking a titular cue from Roland Barthes’s S/Z, guest curator Chantal Pontbriand offers an unlikely and provocative pairing in Harun Farocki and Rodney Graham and seeks to trace “the Archive, the Nonverbal, the Machine (dispositif), and Montage” as concepts integral to both artists. Though it’s tempting to cast German filmmaker Farocki as the “straight man” or documentary foil to Canadian Conceptualist Graham’s often comedic guises, each is a master of the intertextual and sardonic, promising to open up suggestive readings of the other’s work. A far-ranging selection of their previous pieces—including eight single- and multichannel videos from Farocki, and photographs, sculptures, and video installations by Graham—will complement new commissions. The accompanying catalogue is to include a text by Pontbriand, contributions by the artists, and essays for each angle of the show’s thesis.