Elsa Werth (born 1985) is a French artist who lives and works in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Biography

Elsa Werth was born in 1985 in Paris, France. She graduated from both the

École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (; ÉnsAD) also known as Arts Decos' and École des Arts décoratifs, is a public grande école of art and design, constituent member of PSL Research University. The school is located in the R ...

where she studied film animation and

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

. She was awarded the price ''Humankind Leo Burnet'' in 2013 and the 23rd '' Pernod Ricard Foundation Prize for contemporary art'' in 2022.

Work

Elsa Werth's practice includes installation, sculpture, video,

artist's book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind o ...

s, and sound pieces. She has exhibited since 2013 in France, U.S., China, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Her work focuses on the use of common objects and gestures, systems, language, traditional and contemporary rituals. The interpretation of information and commodity production, as well as their relations to the social circles, are the key approaches to her projects. She uses alternative modes of exchange and expression to contradict a world she considers subject to the cult of material values. Her works are always made with simple means to escape spectacular effects. In 2014 she curated with Muriel Leray inside a storage unit in Paris ''Plus une pièce''. Since 2016 she curates ''Potential Visual Evocations'', an ongoing outdoor traveling exhibition that took place in

, Clichy,

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

La Louvière La Louvière (; ) is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pie ...

and

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. Participating artists include Claude Closky, Seulgi Lee and Marylène Negro among others.

Collections

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Kadist Art Foundation,

Les Abattoirs Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse, combines a museum of Modern art, modern and contemporary art (''Musée'') and a Fonds régional d'art contemporain, regional collection of contemporary art (''Frac''). It is located in the Franc ...

, , the Frac des Pays de la Loires, the , the Centre national des arts plastiques, the Rennes 2 University Cabinet du livre d'artistes.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''24/7'', B09K,

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

, China, 2023 * ''Titre un à usages multiples'', Lendroit,

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

, 2022 * ''Give and Take'', Bloom, Düsseldorf, 2022 * ''Parties de cartes'', CDLA, Saint-Yriex-la-Perche, 2021 * ''Blow: Elsa Werth'', Bloom,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, 2020 * ''A Land'', mfc – Michèle Didier, Paris, 2020 * ''Anywayland'', Interface,

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

, 2019 * ''Temps Partiel art-Time', Onde Art Center, Vélizy-Villacoublay, 2019 * ''L'action cesse'', Duplex Walden, Geneva, 2018 * ''Temporary Perspectives'', Martine Aboucaya Gallery, Paris * ''Title One for Multiple Use'', Bazaar Compatible Program, Shanghai, 2016 * ''Title One for Multiple Use'', Martine Aboucaya Gallery, Paris, 2016 * ''Elsa Werth'', Primo Piano, Paris, 2014

Group exhibitions

* Contemporary art collection,

, Paris, 2023 *''Janelas'', BPS22,

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, 2023 * ''The Seashore of Endless Worlds'', Le Commun, Geneva, 2023 *''P,Oe?ie!'', TOPO?, Brussels, 2023 *''De toi à moi,'' Fondation FIMINCO, Romainville, France, 2022 * ''Horizones'', , curated by Clément Dirié, 2022 * ''3 Collectionneurs #8'', Été 78, Brussels, 2021 * ''Helix'', Bloom, Düsseldorf, curated by Ji Sue Byun, 2021 * ''Nous irons tous au paradis'', Frac Normandie – Caen, curated by Anne Cartel, 2021 *''Tout un film!'', Drawing Lab, Paris, curated by Joana P.R. Neves, 2021 *''X'', Frac Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, curated by Claude Closky, 2020 *''Some of Us'', NordArt – Kunst in der Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, curated by Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaize and Marianne Derrien, 2019 * ''Pourquoi faire, pour quoi faire'', Été 78, Brussels, curated by Renato Casciani, 2019 * ''Calculated Chance'', The Société, Brussels, curated by Manuel Abendroth et Els Vermang, 2019 * ''ShipShape, Biennale de Coimbra'', curated by Tomas Cunha Ferreira, 2019 * ''Tilt Horizon 偏见'', AMNUA, Nanjing, curated by Wang Yamin, 2019 * ''26 x Bauhaus'',

Institut Français The Institut Français (; French capitalization, Institut français; "French institute") is a French public industrial and commercial organization (EPIC). Started in 1907 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting French, francophone as ...

, Berlin, 2019, curated by Marjolaine Lévy and Thibaut de Ruyter, 2019 * ''One Minute One Hour One Month... One Million Years'', The Island Club Limassol, curated by Christodoulos Panayiotou, 2019 * ''Le génie du lieu'', Le Creux de l’Enfer, Thiers, curated by Sophie Auger-Grappin, 2018 * ''Potential Visual Evocations'', Darling Foundry, Montreal, 2018 * ''Phantoms'', Wonder/Liebert, Bagnolet, curated by Karin Schlageter, 2018 * ''Artist-fun space, Art Center André Malraux, Douarnenez, curated by Julien Nédélec, 2018 * ''Flatland / Abstractions Narratives'', Mudam, Luxembourg, 2017 * ''Sentimental Summer'', Centre d’Art Bastille (CAB), Grenoble, 2017 * ''La vie mode d’emploi'', CAC Chanot, Clamart, curated by Madeleine Mathé and Karin Schlageter, 2017 * ''Do Disturb'',

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

, Paris, 2017 * ''Rob is a Robe'', Doc, Paris, 2016 * ''60ème Salon de Montrouge'', Montrouge, 2015 * ''Bazar'', Primo Piano, Paris, curated by Lucia Schreyer, 2015 * ''Cocktail Games'', La Ludothèque éphémère, Paris, curated by Florencia Chernajovsky and Clément Dirié, 2015 * ''Châteaux de cartes'', Florence Loewy...by artists, Paris, curated by Camille Azaïs, 2015 * ''Intertidal'', Galerie Eva Meyer, Paris, curated by MBDTCurators, 2015 * ''Modifications'', Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U), Berlin, 2014 * ''Toujours +'', Florence Loewy...by artists, Paris, 2014 * ''5/5'', Fondation Rosenblum, Paris, curated by Clément Dirié, 2013 * ''Marler Media Art Award'', , Marl, curated by Georg Elben, 2013

Selected books

* ''Plus une pièce, Plus un multiple'', 2014, * ''Sparkless'', 2015, * ''Original soldé'', 2018, * ''Formule de politesse'', 2019, * ''2020'', 2020, * ''Politeness'', 2020, * ''Un jour dans Le Monde (4 octobre 2019)'', 2020, ''Un jour dans Le Monde'', Artext
/ref> * ''Negociation'', 2021, ISBN 979-10-94645-08-6 * ''Meeting Point'', 2022, ISBN 979-10-94645-08-6 * ''Abracadabra'', 2022, ISBN 978-2-9602786-1-3 * ''Global Warming Coloring Book'', 2023

References

External links

Potential Visual Evocations website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Werth, Elsa 1985 births Living people 21st-century French women artists French contemporary artists École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs alumni École des Beaux-Arts alumni French video artists French mixed-media artists Feminist artists Artists from Paris 20th-century French women