Camille Henrot: Irony and Creativity to Beat the Monday Blues

Camille Henrot elevates the “Monday blues” to artistic dignity: melancholy is a social network hit the beginning of every week. At the very centre of her investigation there are human anxieties, weaknesses and addictions. The need of giving order to the chaos by using categories that are completely a creation of the mind: exactly as the week is.

Melancholy, disappointed hopes and disorientation are shown in a perspective that is both ironic and laid back. Henrot, thanks to her mild artistic gesture, never exceeds the tragic or the pathetic, and manages to express these contradictions through the masterful use of multiple materials: she plays down the heaviness of bronze, veils the lightness of watercolours with melancholy, and transforms the chaotic anguish of life into a psychedelic carousel. Although, some times the title of the exhibition – Monday – may seem to be a bit restrictive to synthesize all the aspects of the artist’s reflection.

Monday is not only the first solo show in Italy of Camille Henrot – whose works often feature the echo of her Roman residency at Fondazione Memmo – but it is also the first part of a larger project that will include the remaining days of the week and will be presented in Paris next year.

Camille Henrot: Monday at Fondazione Memmo, Roma, through November 6, 2016