Elen Hallégouët’s exhibition So Solo is presented in a space called “La Vitrine” (French for a display window or glass case) and as such employs the metaphor of a public form of intimacy, amputated from its object and fashioned by a scopophilic mechanism. Unlike an aquarium in which the fish knock up against the glass, here viewers can enter the object of their voyeurism.
The modernist and industrial standards that Elen Hallégouët imitates using artisanal techniques are weakened. She individualizes generic motifs that gain texture as a result of the vagaries of the manufacturing process and the versatility of their form and function renders these signs fluid. Suspended in the time of the exhibition, they lie at the center of a value scale that goes from fetish to waste, crystallizing the present while testifying to degeneration.
Although Elen Hallégouët uses storage devices that have a limited life span, her works elude the laws of obsolescence. The self-service turntables diffuse a compilation of twice-altered pop music, hits that after being reinterpreted by guest artists are confronted with the uneven surface of self-produced vinyls that cause their loops to stutter. The ensemble defines a curatorial space that transcends the scale of the venue and reconnects with a notion of collectiveness.
– Lila Torquéo
Elen Hallégouët (France, 1991) is recipient of the C&D Residency, a Fondation Culture & Diversité and Cité internationale des arts creative residency.
The artist would like to thank the Cité internationale des arts, the Fondation Culture & Diversité, Samson Guyomard, Lionel Coudray and Lena Aldeaono.