From these wanderings in the work and in the life of Giacometti, Messager brought back a booty as rich as it is heterogeneous: sculptures and drawings by the artist, notebooks and intimate documents and imagined new works for the occasion. Of all these ingredients, she has not only made an exhibition, but a work in itself: not a "Own room", but a course composed of several "Double rooms".

In the definition given by Messager to each of these rooms, Giacometti is seen as an exhibition partner, rather than a source of inspiration. It is difficult to speak of a “four-handed” creation when only one of the artists is alive. Yet it is indeed a dialogue between the two artists that takes shape.

From the entrance to the Institute, the Atelier de Giacometti, the Chamber of encounters, the Chamber of legends, the Chamber of nose to nose, the Chamber of disorders, the Chamber of Annettes follow one another.

Close to Giacometti's workshop are hung the drawings of the plans of Messager's first workshop ("Artist, collector") and the floor plan of this new exhibition.

The Meeting Room is dedicated to the entourage and to the meetings of Giacometti: photographs, letters, notebooks, works, evoking the people "That he met, loved, admired, hated". A declaration of love and letters to his wife Annette rub shoulders with letters from Beauvoir, Sartre and Miro to the artist, discussions with André Breton, intimate drawings.

The Chamber of legends spatially reorganizes the elements of Without legend. The regular movement of the clock has inspired new designs, in which the legs of the walking man take the place of the hands.

The Nose to Nose Room brings together works by Giacometti and Messager: the very iconic Nez du premier, darting through the bars of a cage, meets the various occurrences of Pinocchio's nose in the work of the contemporary artist, as well as a " snub " to the artist (Hommage à Giacometti, 2015) and new works (The moon-nose; Mother with child; Finger of honor Giacometti). Burlesque, grotesque or transgressive, all these noses are united under the aegis of a litany, inspired by Gertrud Stein: "A nose is a our is a nose ..."

The Chamber of Disorders brings together old and recent works by Messager, on themes linked to Giacometti's work. Among these, several drawings and inks: drawings on photographs of bodies (Song of Innocence: le Chien de Giacometti "Tattooed" on a baby's arm); drawings in "Rorschach spots" (2 cries together); others associating the famous passage from the cradle in the film The Battleship Potemkin and Head on a Rod by Giacometti; two friezes (Kafka-Giacometti and Rencontre)… New works in volume also refer to the sculptor: Rodin with Giacometti on Barbie, an unusual assembly of two icons of modern sculpture with the famous trademark doll, and The ball-slipping bag, in which a sleeping bag, skillfully folded into a female form, is associated with the ball and crescent moon in Giacometti's surrealist work, Suspended Ball.

the Chamber of Annettes refers to the three women bearing the first name Annette who surrounded the artist: his mother, Annetta Stampa, his wife, Annette Arm, and finally Annette Messager, newly involved in the family circle. The squirrel parade for Annette, which shows a naturalized squirrel, hoisted on cushions and imprisoned by a mesh net, pretending to be proud in front of a bronze sculpture by Giacometti representing his wife Annette, recalls with a smiling irony the parallelism between the love parade and the artist's parade.

Pratical information

Annette Messager - Alberto Giacometti Our Rooms

Exhibition from October 16, 2018 to January 16, 2019

Giacometti Institute
5 Rue Victor Schoelcher, 75014 Paris
Phone: 01 44 54 52 44

Prices: from € 9,50

Ticketing : click here (no ticket office on site)

To know more : https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr