Émilie Renard

In its exploration of the relations between artistic productions, local knowledge and present-day creativity, the thematic series Lili, the Rozell and the Marimba, devoted to the contemporary and the vernacular, is accompanied by a journal. The aim being a more in-depth and broader look at the issues raised by guest artists in the course of the exhibitions and residencies punctuating the series.

With a view to drawing up the journal’s content, an editorial board made up of Lotte Arndt, Jean‑Roch Bouiller, Baptiste Brun, John Cornu, Katia Kameli, Sophie Kaplan and Émilie Renard will meet regularly throughout the series. Whether artists, researchers or curators, board members share an attentiveness both to others and other frames of reference, at the same time as they differ in their fields of activity and (sometimes widely) in their points of view.

Émilie Renard is a curator and art critic whose research focuses in particular on the power of art to represent and act within the structures of both the imagination and society. Working in an institutional context – as director of La Galerie Centre for Contemporary Art in Noisy-le-Sec (2013–2018) – she set out to make the centre’s programme a lever on the social, artistic and symbolic relationships with all those involved: artists, teams, publics, partners. A believer in an intersectional feminist approach, she is attentive to the way power plays function in institutions, distributing roles and establishing a ranking of practices. As a way of transcending these divisions she strove to bring together what had been separated in and around art practices: the personal and the professional, the making of art and its administration, and majority and minority states.

During her time at Noisy-le-Sec (2013–2018), the La Galerie programme notably included solo exhibitions by Hedwig Houben and Jean-Charles de Quillacq, 2018; Pierre Joseph, 2015; John Smith, 2014;  Laura Lamiel, 2013; and groups shows such as Your Hands in My Shoes, 2016–2017, curated with Vanessa Desclaux; Greek-type Problems, 2014; and Hello Sadness, Desire, Boredom, Appetite, Pleasure; 2013.

Her exhibitions as a freelance curator include Lynx Eye, Wooden Head, in association with Barbara Sirieix, at Occidental Temporary in Villejuif, 2016; and Intense Proximity, La Triennale, Paris, 2012; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in association with Mélanie Bouteloup, Claire Staebler and Abdellah Karroum in Okwui Enwezor, artistic director; the exhibition cycle “Avec Bruce Lee, c’est possible”, 2011-2012 at Énsba Lyon; La ronde at the Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, 2011; Les Vagues at Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, 2010; Monsieur Miroir for 12^e Ricard Corporate Foundation Award, 2010; INSIDERS – pratiques, usages, savoir-faire, CAPC, Bordeaux, with Charlotte Laubard and Yann Chateigné Tytelman, 2009; Bonnes résolutions en haute montagne, Atelier Cardenas, Paris, 2007; Madame la baronne était plutôt maniérée, assez rococo et totalement baroque. Acte 1, Chapitre 2, Volume 3, Livre 4, Maison Populaire, Montreuil, 2006.

From 2001 to 2006 she codirected the independent venue Public in Paris, with Aurélie Voltz and Giovanna Zapperi.

From 2002 to 2010 she was co-editor in chief, with Boris Achour and Guillaume Désanges, of the journal Trouble, founded with Claire Jacquet and François Piron. In 2008–2009 she carried out a multifaceted research project on the revival of the arcadian myth, including a symposium/festival at the School of Art and Design in Saint-Étienne and #2 of the online journal rosab.net, published by CAPC, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux.