Born in 1974, Latifa Echakhch practises painting, sculpture, video and installation. She draws inspiration from her memories, the political events that marked her, literature, music and poetry. While the romantic landscapes of her childhood had a profound impact on her aesthetics and awareness, her formal vocabulary has been influenced by minimalism and art history from the 1960s to the 1970s.

Having lived in Paris for several years, Latifa Echakhch now lives and works in Martigny in the Swiss Alps. Awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Contemporary Art Prize in 2013 and the Zurich Art Prize in 2015, the artist has now gained international recognition. She is represented by the Kamel Mennour (Paris/London), Kaufmann Repetto (Milan/New York), Dvir (Tel Aviv/Brussels) and Metro Pictures (New York) galleries.

The title of the exhibition refers both to the sunset and to the artistic or theatrical set – the installation of a stage, the assembly of décor and objects defining a stage where action takes place. Latifa Echakhch has often used décor's potential for activation. The large painted curtains show landscapes at sunset, each linked to a personal story lived by the artist.

Here Latifa Echakhch covers picture rails with blue carbon leaves. The artist combines a reference to the Klein blue and ultramarine blue of romantic landscapes with the carbon blue of political leaflets. The title refers to Yasser Arafat’s words in the late 1960s to describe the sequence of global political and social demands.

The surface of this mural depicting a crowd of protesters carrying banners is heavily chipped – as if the buildings themselves are crumbling. In the context of anera marked by political, economic and environmental turbulence, the work suggests the loss of illusions and insecurity and instability, as well as the collapse of visions common to the whole of humanity.

This installation, composed of black bowler hats placed upside down and filled with black ink, refers to Magritte, Chaplin and the TV series Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (Bowler Hat and Leather Boots). The work more broadly symbolises the figure of the poet and the creator, whose inks are ready to pour onto the floor to reveal shapes and words.

One of the key figures who defining Latifa Echakhch’s work, both implicitly and explicitly, is the ghost. In many of her works the artist is conspicuous by her absence. She always presents the remnants of an action that has taken place, which she provoked and executed herself, but that she has never put centre stage. The artist systematically obscures the presence of bodies in favour of the traces they have left.

Latifa Echakhch places items of costume and musical instruments on the floor, along with go-go dancer outfits. These costumes reveal the absence of the body, a concept that plays a major role in the artist’s work. Taken from their respective contexts, these objects are detached from their anecdotal content and their formal rigidity to preserve only the intensity of the allegorical statement.

A small theatre is prepared to take in rainwater from a gutter running along the roof of the BPS22 museum. Here Latifa Echakhch reproduces a habit attributed to her uncle Saïd, who has always fascinated her. Due to limited access to the water supply in Khouribga, Morocco, he used to place a teapot under the gutter of his house to fill it with water and then prepare his « special tea ».

« We met Ousmane Kà in 2016 when we were preparingour planned « Wilwildu»exhibitionat the Grand Café – Saint-Nazaire Art Centre. With his workshop in Guédiawaye on the outskirts of Dakar, he created the canvas for our « North/South loungers».In February 2019, he is hosting us as an for a week’s learning and together we are planning new woven collaborations, in particular this woven « ocean liner».

« We told Ousmane the story of the Ancerville liner, which left the Saint-Nazaire shipyards in 1961 to connect Marseille and Dakar. It will be repainted and renamed Minghua after it was taken over by the People's Republic of China in 1973 to serve its cooperation projects in Tanzania. »

« We have used the medium of weaving to understand and share this network bearing witness to the history of globalisation. The issues of interdependence, the movement of people, forms and techniques, goods and raw materials, and the inequity of our economies are our strands of research. »

« With weaving as the only common language, Sébastiao Yé, assistant to Ousmane Kà, teaches us the weaver’s knot and the threading of the comb, patiently guiding our gestures. »

We programme the ocean liner pattern with the method learned from Ousmane Kà. The anamorphosis created by the preparatory rods reminds us of a drawing spotted in a militant anti-colonial magazine in the 1970s.

This skilful artisanal technique is common to other weaver cultures such as those in China and Lyon silk weavers, and it prepared the advent of the Jacquard mechanisms. In West Africa, it is used by weavers from Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

« The Ancerville liner appeared for the first time on our weave in Nantes. We sent a photo to Ousmane Kà via WhatsApp. »

« The Ancerville liner appeared for the first time on Ousmane Kà’s loom in Dakar. He made an image for us first of all, followed by a few alterations of the pattern and its series. »

« This new pattern, resulting from our collaboration with Ousmane Kà, represents the master weaver handing down his knowledge. It combines with a recognised Mandjaque pattern which, we were told, protects against theft and impersonation. We put our three names in the cloth to commemorate this moment, as is often done on traditional loincloths. »

« With the Coronavirus Covid-19 health crisis, the idea of a Corona pattern was born because the Mandjaque loincloth patterns protect the wearers against evil. The collaboration continues. The pattern was designed by Patrick Bernier for the Tëss weaver’s workshop in Saint-Louis-du-Senegal, directed by Maï Diop. The weaving was carried out by Assane Diop and her assistant Antoine Mendy in April 2020. »

“My project offers a metaphorical immersion into the stomach of a kind of an unknown tentacular animal, in order to find out who we are. I would like for each spectator to feel him/herself becoming a tentacle of the project.”

The fictional film of Laure Prouvost for the French Pavilion takes the form of an initiatory journey, a joyous saga filmed over the course of a roadtrip through France, from the Parisian suburbs to the north of France, from the Palais du Facteur Cheval to the Mediterranean Sea, and finally to Venice.

“The film is the central element around which the piece is structured. It is in a way the head of my octopus, which means that the installation is alive because of the film, but not solely.”

“My installation is a place of life in the depths of our subconscious.”

“I like to question what we present and represent, who we are and where we go to, both personally and on the scale of humanity. There is also the idea of melting and mixing into more or less strong visions, which have more to do with sensations.” 

“Idiomatic expressions, once translated, become very strong images, such as I will tell you loads of salads! Maybe there was a time when salads were told in the fields? I’m as much interested in knowing their context as deconstructing it.”

Using video, drawing, tapestry, ceramics, glass, photography, performance, and above all, language, Laure Prouvost creates immersive installations which plunge the viewer into a state of personal and collective introspection.

“I had the idea of the octopus as a metaphor for the origins of our planet and, as human beings, for the development of our nervous systems. Its tentacles are key because they are the sensory extension of it.”

“A trip to our unconscious. With the help of our brains in our tentacles, we dig tunnels to the past and the future. Let’s follow the light.”  

“My grandmother in Roubaix forced me to bring a tapestry she made to Venice!”

From Madagascar to Dakar, Emmanuelle Andrianjafy’s camera is the primary tool with which she orients herself in a new environment. Her photo series Nothing’s in Vain presents a narrative, informed by her own experiences, about belonging and connection in the urban environment. Her photographs capture her impressions and her thoughts, telling the story of the city through urban realities, migration and labour movements.

The work of the South African artist exposes a certain side of Johannesburg, revealed through the soul of its inhabitants. Often at odds with their surroundings, the characters captured by Fanyana Hlabangane's lens highlight the unique way this city crushes everyone's sense of belonging, destroying their hopes and dreams.

Andrew Tshabangu’s project bears witness to contemporary life on the island of La Réunion through its population, primarily its young people, and also through religion, work, public transport, etc. This series of photographs expands the artist’s practice, already focused on an appreciation for the simple things and life's everyday movements, and always in black and white.

Adama Jalloh was born in Britain to parents from Sierra Leon. His project came into being as a vital tool for defining his own identity, split up until that point between the two countries to which he belongs. Love Story highlights the unique nature of the African diasporas in London, photographing these people as they go about their daily lives. The photographer seeks to bring an authenticity to mundane scenes and thus present a narrative about these communities.

For many years, Armet Francis’s work has focused on the history of black people and Africa, not from a documentary point of view but from a more removed, dramatic perspective. By focusing more on the historical moment than on the identity of the people photographed, the artist gives the impression that his photographs are taken from a fairy tale.

In the post-apartheid era, Jodi Bieber's snapshots give a voice to South Africa's younger generation. These young people come from different social and economic backgrounds and present their country's challenges in their own ways. Each piece in this project gives a voice to an individual, who has chosen a word and a quote.

For Roger Anis, the beach is the perfect place to learn more about a country. Shaabi Beaches takes us into the heart of Egyptian society through the photographer's lens. His photos bear witness to the popularity of beaches among Egyptians, 9 years after the revolution.

A true ode to ‘Africanness’ as a global concept, Tenir by Fototala King Massassy takes up the symbols of the struggles fought in the United States and around the world for Black emancipation. Keen to present this through a strong image, he captured fists decked out in lucky rings, each of which gives weight to their bearer's resistance.

The Renault 12 is the central element of Khalil Nemmaoui’s project. Staging it in different surroundings, the artist plays with the geometric shapes of the vehicle and the arid, irregular landscapes of Morocco. The project aims to examine the intersection between technology, nature, architecture and mechanics.

Using digital collages, Amsatou Diallo offers a reflection on the complexity of African identities in the face of globalisation. By superimposing everyday scenes from African cultures over photographs of urban environments in North Carolina, USA, the artist creates, within the image, a utopian multicultural space-time dimension.

Pierre Joseph, born in Caen in 1965, opens the Palais de Tokyo exhibition with a new series of Photographies sans fin (Endless Photography). Mur de mûres complements his previous projects Photographie sans fin: champ de blé (Endless Photography: Wheat Field (1 & 2), 2016) and Fondation Vincent van Gogh (The Vincent van Gogh Foundation (2018).

His work, in which a single element is multiplied, stacked up and repeated to the point of "indigestion," questions singularity in an ever more homogenous world.

Born in 1955 in Colombes, the artist presents a series of drawings made between July 2018 and July 2019. He makes everyday life the centre of his work and approaches it through various subjects such as weather, news, social events and art. Not without humour, Alain Séchas reacts to everyday events by caricaturing his fellow citizens.

"What interests me is what a play does to those who look at it, and the wider context in which it operates and how it performs.” The work of Fabienne Audéoud, who was born in 1968 in Besançon, examines stereotypes linked to the genres and economic circuits of major brand products.

Born in 1984 in Paris, Carlotta Bailly-Borg presents an ensemble of glass paintings, bringing to life portraits of androgynous characters, men and women. Nestled in this space, these figures seek to exist in the eyes of the world.

Adrien Vescosi, born in Thonon-les-Bains in 1981, uses dye on fabric. For this new exhibition, the artist designed a bespoke painting, in keeping with the architecture and scale of the place. This monumental painting, suspended in the air as in time, greets the audience in its folds.

Through photography, drawing and painting, Laura Lamiel’s works find their essence in the space in which they are installed. On the mezzanine of the big glass roof of the Palais de Tokyo, the artist reveals her “plastic vocabulary”. This installation evokes an individual awareness of the current state of the world.

Born in 1987 in Adelaide, Australia, Madison Bycroft seeks to inspire "friction and dysfunction" in visitors. She is particularly interested in theatre and its mechanisms, and in the representation of genres through disguise. Her new installation is inspired by deadpan humour and burlesque comedy.

Born in Paris in 1974, Marc Camille Chaimowicz is one of those who questions the boundary between art and life. He stands out for his way of working, recognisable by its floral patterns on a pastel background.

Born in Bordeaux in 1957, Nathalie du Pasquier currently lives and works in Milan. Her work fluctuates between two and three dimensions.

For this exhibition, the artist has installed four "miniature museums" where both her own work and that of the artists she loves are exhibited.

Born in Fontaine-lès-Dijon in 1988, the painter Antoine Château likes to exploit many different surfaces and materials. For "Futur, ancien, fugitif "("Future, Old, Fugitive"), cardboard plates, plastic boxes and ceramic bowls serve as a base for creating a vivid and colourful horizon.

The works of Martin Belou, born in 1986 in L’Union, are composed of organic elements, objects and people that he exploits in modified environments.

The environment created for the exhibition is inhabited by smoke, an agave forest that seems to grow in a precarious and imaginary place. Constantly in motion, space is altered by light, particles, or even by the passage of visitors.

Jean-Luc Blanc, born in 1965 in Nice, closes the exhibition with a selection of works of paintings and drawings inhabited by madness. His works mark visitors to the exhibition so that they take with them the persistence image of these faces in their retina. “But how can you silence images without biting your tongue?” asks the artist.

This film, broadcast on a loop in several rooms of the Pavilion, traces the journey undertaken by Laure Prouvost and 12 other characters, from the Paris suburbs to Roubaix, via Marseille and ending in Venice. 

"The initial idea was a journey towards an ideal elsewhere enabling us to learn how to understand ourselves better, as men or women, young or old people, French or foreigners." (Laure Prouvost)

This tapestry made for the exhibition acts as one of the many tentacles linked to the central work. It features characters from the film.

A multidisciplinary artist, Laure Prouvost works in video, drawing, tapestry, ceramics, photography and glass.

Laure Prouvost has a special relationship with language. A fascination that she feeds with her personal experience, particularly following her move to London. The artist uses differences between mother tongue and adoptive language to design her works.  

The exhibition is based on making every viewer feel like a tentacle in this project. Like the film's lead narrative, the artist invites each person, with their story, to participate in the formation of a "whole.”

For this exhibition, Laure Prouvost worked in the Murano glass factories, right next to the Biennale. 

In this room, the artist arranged everyday elements as if they were engulfed in the sea in reference to ecological disasters. Using glass allows her to create a “game on transforming liquidity and light”.

Laure Prouvost's work echoes the term "liquid modernity," formulated by the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. The concept defines a post-modern world governed by immediacy and communication, which make ancient bonds between humans and bodies disappear. It reveals the fragility of a society based on individualism and permanent change.

Artist and painter Sogol Ahmadieh Kashani focuses his work on human issues in different societies, through the lens of emotions such as loneliness or bewilderment. She specifically explores the impact of urban environments and populated spaces on the way different beings live, using a language that is at once abstract and inclusive.

Hugo de Almeida Pinho combines theoretical research with metaphorical statements, developing an artistic practice that takes into account the nature of images and their ability to alter reality and perception. Working primarily on specific cultural, historical and sociopolitical contexts through a variety of mediums, the artist's work aims to reflect the historical construction of how technology shapes our perception.

In Paris, Juana García-Pozuelo is developing pictorial works around the Museum of Romantic Life and its collection. The artist and painter has always been interested in the relationship between a building and its inhabitants, as well as in tracing the meanings certain people have attributed to places that would otherwise remain anonymous.

Feng Li is the creator of the series of photographs White Night, which began in 2005. Through daily scenes from the city of Chengdu, he delicately captures human and urban wildlife in all its forms. His work White Night (2017) was nominated for the Aperture PhotoBook Awards and won the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award. His works were exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2018.

Carl-Oskar Linné's projects use places as their starting point. The visual artist and photographer collects texts, slogans, interviews, reports and statistics, which he pairs with visual elements. His works often take the form of sculptural signs. They often feature the themes of urban planning, property speculation and poverty.

Visual artist Asya Marakulina is continuing to develop her project Clouded Education, based on observations of the movement and shape of clouds, through photographs, sketches and texts. Providing visual information which may be perceived differently depending on the spectator's state of mind, she sees clouds as a universal educational material. The artist plans to make a book of the observations she gathers in Paris.

Joubeen Mireskandari photographs subjects in his studio, while simultaneously capturing their images in the city to reveal portraits with multiple faces. The portrait photography in his studio becomes a Freudian mirror where the attitudes and mental states of his subjects are revealed, while the lens of his camera recounts their social and cultural backgrounds.

Through an artistic practice which combines video art, cinema and musical composition, Anna Rotaenko is working on a graphic series entitled “Where is the magic”, which dissects post-capitalist relations with art, particularly through the recording of conversations systematically constructed using statistical diagrams. An ironic video, Killer Pool features utopian advertisements from an idyllic island, where the viewer can fully relax.

Hemant Sreekumar is currently working on emerging collaborative listening strategies which create more permeable boundaries between performers and listeners, artists and audiences. Performances, prints, works based on light, etc.: his work responds to the concepts of decay, generative bias and semantic loss.

Cosmos presents an abstract story built from a series of objects. Functioning like a slide show, the installation - which takes its title from Witold Gombrowicz's 1965 book - explores how we construct our senses.

In La Spire, a unique installation and aerial work, five female trapeze artists are suspended from a huge steel spiral, at once light and monumental, which measures more than 6 metres high and 18 metres long. A musician accompanies their ascent.

Hommage à Trisha Brown is an ensemble of three pieces celebrating the great postmodernist choreographer Trisha Brown, who strongly influenced the work of Josette Baïz.

As part of FranceDance UK, the choreographer, founder of the Granada Group, is working with ACE Dance and Music to teach this work to young dancers from diverse communities in Birmingham.

Plubel is an odyssey which interrogates collective choreographic work and women’s bodies – overexposed or, on the contrary, hidden. What do we see in these women's bodies as they perfectly execute group movements or, conversely, reveal moments of discord and error?

Clémentine Vanlerberghe, a French-German dancer-choreographer, is based in Lille; Fabritia D’Intino, an interpreter and choreographer, lives in Italy.

Born in Rwanda, Dorothée Munyaneza left Kigali as a refugee at the age of 12, living in the UK before moving to France.

In Unwanted, she focuses on the stories of women trapped by genocide. Widespread rape begot children traumatised by their own history and ostracised because of their taboo origins.

This piece for 15 dancers against a backdrop of techno-trance music transposes the club scene to the theatre. This is the first time Gisèle Vienne has shown her work in the UK.

In Another Look at Memory, the artistic director of the National Choreographic Centre in Tours revisits ten years of choreography with some of his most faithful dancers to create a new memory of the past. Over a powerful choral score by Philip Glass, together they deliver a dance of rare precision.

A multilingual recital enriched by Ukrainian, Filipino and Sephardic melodies, Dumy Moyi exists in total opposition to the rituals of Western theatre, with its boundaries, strict temporality and power relations. In close proximity to the audience, François Chaignaud, wearing a sculptural suit, performs dances and songs inspired by the Theyyam rituals of Malabar, India.

In Queen Blood, Ousmane Sy channels the energies and gestures of seven young dancers who deploy their virtuosity to interrogate the possibilities of femininity. They do this from within two very different musical worlds – one acoustic, the other electro.

The French choreographer created the piece based on each of these women’s personal lived experiences.

This piece is built from encounters between African dances, contemporary dance and hip-hop. Working with this radiant trio, the young Senegalese-born choreographer savours the interactions of three men who poetically interrogate their own freedom and push their individual boundaries.