Philippe Parreno (born 1964 in

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) is a French

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

, living and working 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 ...

. His works include films, installations,

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

s, drawings, and text. Parreno's work centers around both expanding ideas of time and duration through his artworks and distinctive conception of exhibitions as a medium. He began examining unique approaches to both narration and representation in the 1990s, and has been exhibiting internationally since.

Early life and education

Parreno was born in Grenoble, in France. From 1983 to 1988, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in

and at the Institute des hautes études en arts plastiques at the

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 ...

from 1988 to 1989.

Work

Parreno has exhibited his works since the early 1990s, while also working collaboratively with other artists in various media throughout his career. Exhibitions and exhibition-making has been a central aspect in his work. For the artist, the exhibition is not a single work of art but a medium that offers endless possibility. Therefore, his exhibitions are mostly site-specific, as Parreno discloses in an interview for

ArtReview ''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013. History Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...

: "What I generally do is so specific to the place that will hold the exhibition. I don't 'travel' shows. I find it impossible". The press release from his 2009 show at Kunsthalle Zurich notes that apart from his extended concept of exhibitions, "an outstanding feature of Parreno's work is the transformation of genres, in particular film, into visual art".

Collaboration

Collaboration is integral to Parreno's work. In June 2006,

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

released a feature-length

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by Parreno and Scottish artist

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's ...

entitled '' Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait'', which premiered out of competition at the 2006

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. Using 17 cameras, this unique football film follows legendary French midfielder

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

throughout an entire

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

match in front of 80,000 fans at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

. Two of the cameras were borrowed from the U.S. army and have the largest zoom available. The film tracks Zidane's every move on and off the ball, in the thick of the action. Subtitles includes the player's thoughts and observations on his playing career. The motion unfolds in a flow accentuated by an emotive original score by Scottish rock band,

Mogwai Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogwa ...

. In 2007 Parreno directed and co-curated with

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and art historian. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

, a group exhibition, ''Il Tempo del Postino (Postman Time)'' for the

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first takin ...

, which then showed at

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

, 2009. More than fifteen artists collaborated in this project including

Doug Aitken Doug Aitken (born 1968) is an American multidisciplinary artist. Aitken's body of work ranges from photography, print media, sculpture, and architectural interventions, to narrative films, sound, single and multi-channel video works, installatio ...

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

Jonathan Bepler Jonathan Bepler is an American composer of experimental music perhaps best known for his collaborative work with artists and choreographers, including many years of work with visual artist Matthew Barney. He is also multi-instrumentalist, singer, ...

Tacita Dean Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. She lives ...

Trisha Donnelly Trisha Donnelly (born April 22, 1974) is an American contemporary artist who is particularly well known as a conceptual artist. Donnelly works with various media including photography, drawing, audio, video, sculpture and performance.Cotter, Suz ...

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson (; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. In 1995, ...

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964) is a British artist. In the 1990s he was one of the informal Young British Artists group; like many of them, he took a degree in fine art from Goldsmiths' College, in London. He was among the artists included in the ...

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (born 30 June 1965) is a French visual artist and educator. She is known for her work in video projection, photography, and art installations. She has worked in landscaping, design, and writing. "I always look for expe ...

Carsten Höller Carsten Höller (born December 1961) is a German artist. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.Alice Rawsthorn (January 2012)"Cliff Hanger - The Ghanaian home of artists Carsten Höller and Marcel Odenbach goes above—and beyond" '' W Magazin ...

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French contemporary artist, who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. He lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Early life and education Pier ...

, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno,

Anri Sala Anri Sala (born 1974) is an Albanian contemporary artist whose primary medium is video. Life and career Sala studied art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996. He also studied video at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Pari ...

Tino Sehgal Tino Sehgal (; ; born 1976) is an artist of German and Indian descent, based in Berlin, who describes his work as "constructed situations". He is also thought of as a choreographer who makes dance for the museum setting. Personal life Sehgal was ...

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija (, Jerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, and Chiangmai, Thailand. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installatio ...

Thomas Demand Thomas Cyrill Demand (born 1964) is a German sculptor and photographer. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles, and teaches at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg. He makes photographs of three-dimensional models that look like ...

, and Peter Fischli / David Weiss. In 2012 Parreno collaborated with artist

on ''To the Moon via the Beach''. Shown at The Amphitheatre in Arles, this was a piece concerning work, production, and change, with the title reflecting its shifting nature and the promise of a journey. On entering the exhibition, visitors encountered an area covered in tons of sand. Over four days, this "beach" area was transformed by sand sculptors into a moonscape, which formed a constantly changing backdrop to a series of 22 artists' projects. The whole process was made visible with equal importance placed upon the production, presentation, and exchange of ideas. In 2014 Parreno was involved in a unique collaboration with a number of artists and curators, including

Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and art historian. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

, Asad Raza, and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

, for which he was also a curator. The exhibition ''Solaris Chronicles'' at the

LUMA Foundation LUMA Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 2004 that is based out of Zurich, Switzerland. It supports the activities of independent contemporary artists and other pioneers working in the fields of art, photography, publishing, doc ...

Arles Campus was presented in two phases and examined, through a series of artistic interventions and projects, the creative vision of architect

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

. Centred on large-scale models of many of Gehry's seminal works, the constantly shifting mise-en-scène created by the artists formed a bridge between art and architecture, transforming the usual relationship and collaborative processes between the two practices. In 2019, Parreno, Arca and Nicolas Becker used a generative music technology calle
Bronze
to create a new work which will occupy the lobby o
MoMA
in New York for two years. 'Echo' is a site-specific work involving sound, light and animated physical objects. Described by the artist as an auto-poetic system, the work will exist in the space, responding to itself and its surroundings endlessly.

Notable exhibitions and works

Parreno has used his specific conception of exhibitions in his 2013 exhibition ''Anywhere, Anywhere Out Of The World'' where he radically transformed the monumental space of the

in Paris. Parreno turned the building itself into a living constantly evolving organism using sound, image and performance to guide the visitor on a journey through his works, both old and new. The exhibition was orchestrated along the lines of a dramatic composition where the spectral presence of objects, music, lights, and films guide and manipulated the visitor's experience transforming this monologue into a polyphony. In ''Dancing around the Bride'' in 2012 at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

curated by Carlos Basualdo in collaboration with Erica F. Battle, Parreno acted as a metteur-en-scène (orchestrator), using the artworks of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Considered a central figure in the development of American postwar art, he has been variously associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and ...

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

, and

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

to invoke time and motion. Sound was a key element in the 2013 exhibition, ''The Bride and The Bachelors'', at the

Barbican A barbican (from ) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe Medieval Europeans typically b ...

, London. The varied sequence of Parreno's subtle orchestration of live and pre-recorded sound from the works of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp was arranged in concert with live dance performances, enabling the exhibition to change over time. During

, 2012, Parreno presented two major new works at

Fondation Beyeler The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler, with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes ...

– ''Marilyn'' (2012) and ''C.H.Z. (Continuously Habitable Zones)'' (2011). ''Marilyn'' was subsequently shown at Parreno's first solo exhibition in Russia at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow and at the 55th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

at François Pinault's museum,

Palazzo Grassi Palazzo Grassi (also known as the Palazzo Grassi-Stucky) is a building in the Venetian Classical style located on the Grand Canal of Venice (Italy), between the Palazzo Moro Lin and the campo San Samuele. History First owners During the 16th ...

. ''H OSIS'', Parreno's first major U.S. exhibition, ran from June until August 2015 within the monumental interior of

Park Avenue Armory The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed in the Gothic Revival style ...

's Wade Thompson Drill Hall, New York and transformed the traditional exhibition experience through an interplay of film, sculpture, and the spectral presence of sound and light. Shortly after, in October 2015 until February 2016, Parreno presented ''Hypothesis'', at HangarBicocca in Milan, his first survey exhibition in Italy. The show, curated by Andrea Lissoni, was inhabited by a series of key pieces together with recent works and music according to a mise en scène devised by Parreno. In October 2016 ntil April 2017Parreno undertook the Hyundai Commission for the Turbine Hall at London's

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

. Entitled ''Anywhen'', it was the second annual Hyundai Commission, a series of site-specific works created for the

Turbine Hall The turbine hall, generating hall or turbine building is a building or room in any steam cycle or hydroelectric power plant which houses a number of components vital to the generation of electricity from the steam that comes from the boiler, or ...

by known international artists. In 2017 from 2 February - 7 May, Parreno exhibited'' A Time Coloured Space'' at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto. Taking over the entire museum, it featured some of Parreno's most well-known works, along with new works. In 2022 Parreno exhibited ''La Quinta del Sordo'' (2021) at Museo del Prado in Madrid, next to the room that houses Francisco Goya's '

Black Paintings The Black Paintings (Spanish: ''Pinturas negras'') is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, probably between 1820 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fe ...

'. The forty-minute audiovisual work uses advanced technology to recreate the ambience of Goya's house, known as the Quinta del Sordo, based on a 3D computer model Parreno created of the architecture. In 2024, Parreno was appointed artistic director of the Okayama Art Summit 2025, a large international contemporary art exhibition held every three years in the Japanese city of

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

Selected key works

*Anywhen (film), 2016 *Li Yan (film), 2016 *The Crowd (film), 2015

Collections

His work is included in the collections of many institutions such as the

Centre Georges 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 ...

, France;

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa The is a museum of contemporary art located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. The museum was designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the architectural office SANAA in 2004. In October 2005, one year after its openin ...

, Japan; the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(MoMA), New York; the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

(USA); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, USA; the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: * The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Ne ...

New York, USA; and

, London.

Selected solo exhibitions

2024 ''Philippe Parreno: Voices'', Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany. ''Philippe Parreno: Places and Spaces'', Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan. ''VOICES'', Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. 2022 ''Philippe Parreno: La Quinta del Sordo'',

Museo Nacional del Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...

, Madrid, Spain. 2018 ''Philippe Parreno: La levadura y el anfitrión (The Yeast and The Host)'',

Museo Jumex Museo may refer to: * ''Museum'' (2018 film), Mexican drama heist film * Museo station, station on line 1 of the Naples Metro {{disambiguation ...

, Mexico City. 2017 ''Philippe Parreno: Synchronicity'',

Rockbund Art Museum The Rockbund Art Museum (RAM, zh, s=上海外滩美术馆 , t=上海外灘美術館 , p=Shànghǎi Wàitān Měishùguǎn, l=Shanghai Bund Art Museum) is a contemporary art museum in central Shanghai. The museum is on Huqiu Road, in the former ...

, Shanghai. ''Philippe Parreno: A Time Coloured Space'', Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal. 2016 ''Philippe Parreno: Thenabouts'', ACMI (

Australian Centre for the Moving Image ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of screen culture including film, television, videogames, digital culture and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbo ...

), Melbourne, Australia. ''Philippe Parreno: Anywhen'', the 2016 Hyundai Commission for the Turbine Hall,

, London. 2015 ''Hypothesis'',

HangarBicocca Pirelli Hangar Bicocca is a site for contemporary art exhibitions, located in the Bicocca district of Milan, Italy. The building used to be a Pirelli factory. It was converted into 10,900 square metres of exhibition galleries in 2012. Sin ...

, Milan, Italy. ''H Y P N OSIS'',

, New York, USA. 2013 ''Anywhere, Anywhere Out of the World'',

, Paris, France. ''Philippe Parreno'', curated by

, The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia. 2012 ''Philippe Parreno'',

, Basel, Switzerland. 2010 ''Philippe Parreno'',

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Westminster, Greater London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Galler ...

, London, UK. ''Philippe Parreno'', CCS Bard,

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA. ''From November 5 Until They Fall Down'',

Castello di Rivoli The Rivoli Castle is a former Residence of the Royal House of Savoy in Rivoli (Metropolitan City of Turin, Italy). It is currently home to the Castello di Rivoli – Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, the museum of contemporary art of Turin. In 1997, ...

, Torino, Italy. 2009 ''November'',

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin. History Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...

, Dublin, Ireland. ''May'', Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. ''8 Juin 1968'',

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 ...

- Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parreno, Philippe Living people French contemporary artists Academic staff of European Graduate School 1964 births