bio
Belgian filmmaker/artist Johan Grimonprez caused an international stir with his first feature film dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, a dizzying chronicle of airplane hijacking that eerily foreshadows the events of 9/11. Traveling the main festival circuit from the Berlinale to Sundance, his critically acclaimed films have garnered Best Director Awards and were acquired by NBC Universal, ARTE, and Channel 4. In addition, his works are part of the permanent collections of the Tate Modern and the Centre Georges Pompidou, as well as having been exhibited worldwide.
An exploration into media's mutating collusion with mass perception, Grimonprez's work is an inspired media archaeology that can be envisioned as both the joyful affirmation of a global disengagement, as well as the catalyst of effervescent criticism. In a society where excessive media consumption has redefined the role of the storyteller, what is at stake is how to tell a personal story in a world abundant with images.
Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2011
- 'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards', The Blaffer Gallery - Art Museum of the University of Houston, Houston (TX) (USA)
- 'Het mistook the groundlights for stars and asked why the airplane was flying upside down', ltd los angeles, Los Angeles (CA) (USA)
2010
- The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (UK)
- 'Sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar', Voges Gallery , Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- 'Double Take', MOMA/ DocForthnight, New York (NY) (USA)
- Cinémathèque Québecoise, Montréal (Canada)
2009
- Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (NY) (USA)
- Magasin 3 Stockholm, Stockholm (Sweden)
2008
- The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (CA) (USA)
2007
- 'Le ciel est peut être vert et nous daltoniens', Le Plateau / Frac Ile-de-France, Ile-de-France (France)
- 'Johan Grimonprez, Retrospektive', Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (Germany)
- Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris (France)
2006
- 'But The Cups Never Grew To Be Kettles', Erna Hécey Gallery, Brussels (Belgium)
2005
- 'Looking for Alfred', Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (Belgium)
- Mead Gallery - University of Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry (United Kingdom)
- Artist House, Oslo (Norway)
- 'Johan Grimonprez, Looking for Alfred', Moderna Museet, Stockholm (Sweden)
2004
- 'Johan Grimonprez: Looking for Alfred', Photographers Gallery, London (United Kingdom)
- 'We never tell everything, we always keep something for the next anthropologist, Johan Grimonprez', Yvon Lambert , New York (NY) (USA)
- 'HOLLYWOOO: Flag Raising Ceremony', Hollywood Hills House, Los Angeles (CA) (USA)
- part of Revolution/Restoration Part II, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (Belgium)
2003
- The Essor Gallery, London (UK)
- Remo, Osaka (Japan)
- Kojimachi Gallery, Tokyo (Japan)
- argos, Brussels (Belgium)
2002
- SMMOA - Sante Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles (CA) (USA)
2001
- Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Impakt/ Faltland Gallery, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
2000
- Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
- Museum für Neue Kunst/Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Erna Hécey Gallery, Brussels (Belgium)
- Deitch Projects, New York (NY) (USA)
- House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest (Hungary)
- Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen (Denmark)
- 'Maybe the sky is green and we're just colorblind', S.M.A.K., Ghent (Belgium)
- Magnetoscopio, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Atomium, Brussels (Belgium)
- Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London (UK)
- The Kitchen, New York (NY) (USA)
1999
- Oakville Gallery, Toronto (Canada)
- Casino d'Art Contemporain, Luxemburg (Luxemburg)
- Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver (Canada)
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia)
- Australian Center for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (Australia)
1998
- 'We must be over the rainbow ... ', Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
- Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (MA) (USA)
- Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (The Netherlands)
- Gallery for Contemporary Art, Cambridge (MA) (USA)
- Chapter Art Center, Cardiff (UK)
- La Caixa , Barcelona (Spain)
- Centro Cultural do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris (France)
- Bild Museet, Umea (Sweden)
- Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (Germany)
- Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London (UK)
- Kunstverein München, Munich (Germany)
- Ludwig-Suermondt Museum , Aachen (Germany)
1997
- Galleri Riis, Oslo (Norway)
- Kiasma, Helsinki (Finland)
- MuHKA, Antwerp (Belgium)
- Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (Belgium)
- Beursschouwburg, Brussels (Belgium)
- Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Musea da Republica, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Deitch Projects, New York (NY) (USA)
- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France)
1995
- Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent (Belgium)
1994
- Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (Belgium)
1993
- YYZ Gallery, Toronto (Canada)
cv
Group exhibitions (selection)
2011
'Unheimlich Vertraut/ The Uncanny Familiar', C/O Berlin, Berlin (Germany)
2008
'Happiness', German Hygiene Museum Dresden (Germany)
'Unnamable Name', Ithaca County Public Library, Ithaca, New York (USA)
'Signals in the dark: Art in the shadow of war', Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga, Toronto (Canada)
2007
'Töten', Zeitraumexit, Mannheim (Germany)
'Artist in Wonderland', Baltic Sea Cultural Center, Gdansk (Poland)
'Under Hitchcock', (during: International Short Movies Festival of Vila do Conde), Solar, Vila do Conde (Portugal)
'Ombres au Paradis', FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais (France)
'Exhibition at the beeldbank', University of Eindhoven (The Netherlands)
'Petrol', Moscow Biennale, Moscow (Rusland)
2006
'Video: an art, a history / 1965-2005 New Media Collection Centre Pompidou', Miami Art Central, Miami (USA)
Manipulations. On Economy of Deceit, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk (Poland)
'ZOOlogical Garden', family park Harry Malter, Heusden (Belgium)
'50 Jahre/Years Documenta 1955 -2005. archive in motion', Domus Artium 2002 Museum, Salamanca (Spain)
'Transformation. Aus eigener Sammlung', Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein)
'Photo-Trafic', Centre pour l'image contemporaine, BAC, Geneva (Switzerland)
'EXCES', Z33, Hasselt (Belgium)
'On the move, verkehrskultur II', Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (Germany)
'Sip My Ocean', Louisiana museum of modern art, Louisiana (USA)
'Médiat', L'Arteppes, Annecy (France)
'Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye', MART, Rovereto (Italy)
'Vers uit België', Montevideo, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
2005
'Zur Vorstellung des Terrors: Die RAF-Austellung (Regarding Terror: the RAF-Exhibition)', Kunst-Werke Berlin (Germany)
'Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye', The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (USA)
2004
'Monument to Now', The Dakis Joannou Collection, DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens (Greece)
Tate, Liverpool (United Kingdom)
2003
'Wings of Art, Motiv Flugzeug', Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (Germany)
'Appendix 2:diffusion and its topology', maf_Media Art Farm, Tbilisi (Germany)
'in context: a running program', Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (USA)
'Your memorabilia', Video Art Screening: Tokyo, Tokyo International Forum (at NICAF 2003), Tokyo (Japan)
'Hardcore', Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France)
'M-ARS, Art and War', Neue galerie am landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (Austria)
2002
'Trauma', MOMA, Oxford (United Kingdom)
2001
'4FREE', BüroFriedrich, Berlin (Germany)
'Maybe the sky is green and we're just colorblind', MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Boston (USA)
2000
'Voilà', Le Monde dans la Tête, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (France)
'The American Century, Part II: 1950 - 2000', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (USA)
1998
XXIV Biennale Sao-Paulo, Sao-Paulo (Brasil)
1997
'Espèces d'Espace in Made in France', MNAM, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France)
biblio
2008
- The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (CA) (USA)
- Cité des Arts, Paris (France)
2006
- Le Plateau / Frac Ile-de-France, Ile-de-France (France)
1997
- DAAD, Berlin (Germany)
documentation
Johan Grimonprez
1000 Brussel, België
