Exhibitions

Continuing the annual ACCA International series of solo exhibitions by influential artists on the international stage, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Oui Move in You, a major solo exhibition by French artist Laure Prouvost. Encompassing new commissions and a survey of existing work over the past decade, the exhibition will transform ACCA’s unique architecture into a labyrinthine and other-worldly environment, introducing Australian audiences to the imaginative, absorbing and frequently absurdist hallmarks of Prouvost’s diverse artistic practice.

Acknowledging the radical, experimental, and pathfinding figures who came before her, Oui Move In You conceptually explores the roles and legacies of grandmother and grandfather, the maternal spaces of mother and child, and contemporary social spaces in which humans commune with the natural world. The exhibition is composed as a celebration of liberation and imagination, the sensual and sensuous, being and belonging, care and connection. Taking audiences on a journey from the subterranean realm of the underground and the subconscious, opening into the bodily and earthly realm exploring sensuality, desire and the fecundity of nature, the exhibition culminates with a release into the sky and celestial plains of weight and weightlessness, lightness and gravity.

Laure Prouvost is among the most celebrated artists on the contemporary international art scene, with ACCA’s exhibition the first major presentation of the artist’s work in Australia. Born in 1978 in Lille, France, Prouvost lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Prouvost graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins (London, 2002) and a Master of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College (London, 2010). Prouvost represented France at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennial in 2019. She was the recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize in 2013 and the MaxMara Art Prize for Women in 2011. Prouvost has recently presented solo exhibitions at Remai Modern (Saskatoon, Canada 2023); Nasjonalmuseet (Oslo, Norway, 2022); Longlati Foundation (Shanghai China, 2022); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen, Denmark, 2021), which included a major new video work co-commissioned with ACCA; as well as a wide range of public art and performance projects.

A limited-edition artist’s book will be published to coincide with the exhibition, including contributions from fellow artists, friends and collaborators across the globe, paying homage to grandmothers, artistic matriarchs, ancestors, inspirational elders and forebears.

An abridged version of the exhibition will tour to Perth Institute of Contemporary Art in 2025.

Curators: Max Delany and Annika Kristensen

Image: Laure Provost, Above Front Tears Oui Float 2022, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo. Photograph: Annar Bjørgli-Nasjonalmuseet, Pressebilder