
5 min
"Temple of Love" by Gaëlle Choisne at the Toronto Biennial of Art
In Temple of Love, Gaëlle Choisne explores the role of love, the possibility of it being a form of resistance, and the hope of creating connections and acting politically. Having just received the 2024 Marcel Duchamp Prize, the artist is currently exhibiting this project at the Toronto Biennial of Art with the support of IF Export 2024.
An artist in the spotlight
Born in 1985 in Cherbourg, Gaëlle Choisne holds a National Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. After a year-long residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, she joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam in January 2017. Through a blend of sculpture and photography, she creates installations focused on themes such as displacement, architecture, materiality, organic matter, and waste. With her work The Age of Aquarius, she won the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2024.
The Staging of Love
In Temple of Love, Gaëlle Choisne creates an in situ sculptural installation that explores the concept of love. Through offering-sculptures and a sensual oyster banquet, she uses the vocabulary of architecture, organic influences, and textile materials to stage a shared habitat. In this exhibition, love is both a social and spiritual concern, akin to a place of congregation and refuge, fostering a space where gaze and discourse can unfold.
Reconnecting with Magic
Gaëlle Choisne seeks to question the possibility of love as an attitude and form of resistance, a creator of bonds and a source of profoundly political actions. Temple of Love celebrates the subversive eroticism of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and the cigarettes of the Haitian Vodou figure Erzulie Dantor. Through this installation, Choisne creates contrast—from gentleness to violence, encompassing a love that can sometimes flirt with hatred. It’s an opportunity to revive rituals, summon the gods, and reconnect with magic.
An exhibition supported by IF Export 2024
Having just received the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Gaëlle Choisne’s Temple of Love is being presented at the Toronto Biennial of Art with the support of IF Export 2024. This support is designed for international projects to aid French creators and cultural partners, or those based in France, in initiatives for outreach, cooperation, or presence at major influential events. The exhibition runs from September 21 to December 1, 2024.

IF Export supports French or France-based creators and cultural partners internationally for projects focused on outreach, cooperation, or presence at major influential events.