Les approches - Chantal Akerman, Annette Messager

This project forms part of the Fondation Louis Vuitton's "Beyond the Walls" series, an initiative that aims to show works from the Collection that have never been accessible to the public, during temporary exhibitions within the different locations of the Espace culturel Louis Vuitton throughout the world (München, Venezia, Beijing and Tokyo).

Chantal Akerman is a major name in contemporary cinema and her influence can be seen through the works of many of today's filmmakers, from Hou Hsiao-hsien to Gus Van Sant. Her films are characterised by a wide range of registers and narrative modes; they explore the worlds of fiction and documentaries, experimental video and literary adaptation, and encompass every aspect of cinema. As she goes beyond the norms of representation in terms of both formality and culture. The film director tackles the issues of privacy, family, loneliness and the monotony of everyday life through the emancipating power of the individual within a given era.

Annette Messager is motivated by the processes of representation linked to womanhood, identity, dreams and human desires, by means of collection, handiwork, play, texts, drawings, photographs and embroidery. She represents the pathologies of the contemporary world as filmed fairy tales or poetic fables with sombre, malignant connotations..

Having taken part in major international events (such as the Venice Biennale and the Kassel documenta) and been exhibited at various prestigious museums (Centre Pompidou, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris), these two artists are concerned with a collection of received ideas about privilege, culture and gender issues, through a subtle deconstruction of archetypal figureheads and the staging of everyday life.