Gerard Byrne

Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane)

Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane) is a single channel video projection, which documents an attempt to dramatically re-enact a 1977 interview conducted between the French intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre, and journalist Catherine Chaîne, which was published in ’Le Nouvel Observateur’ journal. The project develops from a number of previous projects Byrne has realised, each of which similarly engage a collective amnesia about our shifting cultural history, through dramatic re-enactments of culturally loaded conversations and interviews gleaned from discarded popular magazines. Previous works have delved into the forlorn double page spreads of issues from ’National Geographic’ and ’Playboy’ during the seventies and eighties; with Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane) Byrne focuses on a generically candid encounter with Sartre, which discusses his relationship with women throughout his life, at a moment towards the end of that life.

In the original exchange Sartre, the emblematic European intellectual of the twentieth century, embodies a whole modernist patrimony under the scrutiny of a younger feminist journalist. In Byrne’s project, a journeyman French actor (real name Michel Debrane) struggles to re-construct that edifice under the gaze of a camera, while being questioned from off-screen by an actress who plays the journalist Chaîne. Separated by age, and by gender, and formed by different epochs, Sartre a Marxist Modernist, and Chaîne a post ’68 feminist, the schism between the two is dramatised in Byrne¹s project through the use of surround sound technology. In Homme à Femmes (Michel Debrane), Sartre never escapes the gaze of the camera, his alienated voice emanating from within the rectangular image. The voice of Chaîne emerges from outside and at odds with that projected image, from somewhere behind the viewer, mingling with both the noisy presence of the film crew in the space behind the camera, and the actual noise of viewers in the space of the gallery. The formal rupture between audio and image within the work, mirrors both the profound historical differences between the conversants, and the gap cleaved by the camera between those before it - Debrane, isolated in his struggle to personify Sartre, and those who stand behind and watch.

Born in Dublin, 1969

Education

Whitney Independent Study Program, New York, 1999
M.F.A. New School for Social Research, New York, 1996
B.A. National College of Art & Design, Dublin, 1991

Solo exhibitions

2007
Venise Biennale

2005
Beaumont Public Project Space, Luxembourg

2006
Chisenhale Gallery, London
Dundee Contemporary Arts, in collaboration with Film Video Umbrella

2004
Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
Artissima, Turin
In repertory, Project, Dublin
A country road. A tree. Evening, BAK Utrecht Curated by Maria Hjlavajova

2003
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Curated by Nicolaus Schafhausen

2002
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin
Limerick City Gallery
Green on Red Gallery, Dublin

2001
A crime dramatically re-constructed, again, Meeting House Square, Dublin,

2000
Theater, Galeri T-19, Vienna

1999
Theater-Bunker-Archive-Reception area, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin

1996
Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin

1994
City Arts Centre, Dublin

1993
Galeria Monumental, Lisbon, Portugal

1992
Musee du Pilori, Niort, France

Group exhibitions (selected)

2006
A Short History of Performance: Part 3, Whitechapel, London
Nordic Biennial, Moss, Norway
Lembachaus, Munich

2005
EindhovenIstanbul, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Information / Transformation, Extra City, Antwerp
More than this, Goteborg Biennial, Goteborg
I really should, Lisson Gallery
If I can’t Dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution, Utrecht / Den Bosch / Leiden
Icestrom, Kunstverein Munchen

2004
Dedicated to a Proposition, Extra City, Antwerp
Fiction, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
The Whitstable Biennial, Whitstable, England
This much is certain, Royal College of Art, London
EV+A, Limerick
New Party, Breeder Projects, Athens

2003
Institution@, Kiasma, Finnish Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki
The Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul
The American effect, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Stop & Go, FRAC Pas-de-Calais
Permaculture, Project, Dublin

2002
One Site, Two Places, Galleri der Stadt, Sindelfingen
September Horse, Kunstlerhaus Bethanian, Berlin
Greyscale / CMYK, Tramway, Glasgow
Manifesta 4, Frankfurt
How things turn out, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Stepping out, Pittsburgh Center for Contemporary Art.

2001
Vacationland, Arthouse, Dublin
New Settlements, Nikolaj center for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen
Art London

2000
At a remove, Woodstock Center for Photography, New York
Light as object, Gale Gates Performance space, New York
Strange but True, Arnolfini, Bristol
Art London
Transporter, Bangkok, Thailand

1999
The conclusion of a paradox, Icebox, New York
RaumGrenzen, Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna
Utopias, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Performance festival Odense, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Denmark
EVA Limerick
Art Chicago
Catalyst Arts, Belfast
Spaceship Earth, Art in General, New York

1998
Multiples, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
A street walk named desire, Kunsthalle, Luzern
Good Life project, Benno Loning’s place, Brooklyn New York
Wish you luck, PS.1 Art Center, New York

1997
Performance festival Odense, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Denmark
Kiosk, Downtown Arts Festival, New York

1995
Collisions, Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain

1992
Lux Europae, Edinburgh

1991
Windfall, Glasgow

Teaching

2000 – present Lecturer in Fine Art Sculpture, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland.
1998 – present Visiting lecturer at Universities and Art Schools internationally including The Royal College of Art, London, The Royal Art Academy of Copenhagen, The University of Ulster, Manchester Metropolitan University, Rochester Institute of Technology, National College of Art & Design Dublin, and Bergen Academy of Arts, Norway.

Publications

"More than this" 3rd Goteborg International Biennial, Goteborgs Kunsthall, 2005 “Books, Magazines, Newspapers”, w/essay by George Baker, Lukas & Sternberg # 9, 2004 “A country road, a tree, evening”, BAK, 2004 “Printed Project Issue # 1”, October 2003 “This much is certain” Royal College of Art Curatorial programme, 2004 “Poetic justice” The 8th Istanbul Niennial, Ed. Dan Cameron, 2003 “The American Effect” Ed. Lawrence Rinder, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003
Interview with Joachim Koester, Newspaper Jan Mot, Brussels, Jan-Feb 2003 “Op-Ed”, Limerick City Gallery & The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2002
Artists contribution to October Magazine, # 100, Pub. M.I.T. Press 2002 “Greyscale / CMYK” (Cat.) Ed. Rebecca Gordon- Nesbitt, Pub. NIFCA, 2002 “Manifesta 4” (Cat.) Frankfurt, 2002. Meike Behm (Ed.) “How things turn out” (Cat.) I.M.M.A.,Dublin 2002. Annie Fletcher (Editor) “Transporter” (Cat.) Editors De Chiara & Urabe AARA Bangkok Thailand 2000 “Utopias” (Cat.) Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. 1999 “Performance festival” (Cat.) Pub. Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark 1997 & 1999 “E.V.+ A.” 99. (Cat.) Ed. Jeanne Greenberg Rohytan. Pub. Gandon Editions 1999 “Collisions” (Cat.) Ed. Corinne Diserans. Pub. Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain, 1995 “Lux Europae” (Cat.) Ed. Isabelle Vasier. Pub. Edinburgh 1992 “Windfall” (Cat.) Pub. Glasgow 1991

Recent Exhibition Reviews / Press

Photography’s Expanded Field George Baker, October, No. 114, Fall 2005
Abstraction and dislocation in recent
works by Gerard Byrne Maeve Connolly, Circa, No. 113, Autumn 2005
Icestorm Pablo Lafuente, Frieze, No.93, September 2005 “Hommes a Femmes,” Green on Red Gal. Circa, Spring 2005
An Archival impulse Hal Foster, October, No. 110, Fall 2004
The View R.T.E. October 2004 (TV)
Hommes a Femmes Untitled Magazine, September 2004
fiction: Truth in Photography and Painting Art Monthly, Sept. 2004
This much is certain Preview section, Art Review, March 2004
Gerard Byrne Frieze Magazine, January 2004
New Sexual Lifestyles Sunday Times Culture Section, 9/11/03
Focus on Photography II Flash Art, November, 2003
Reality Art: Dokumentarisches Arbeiten
in Kunst, Film, Video, Fotografie Springerin, Herbst 2003
Reanimations (1) George Baker, October, No. 104, Spring 2003
Sex talk in the Summer House Sunday Times Culture Section, 17/11/02
How Americans look from Abroad The New Yorker Magazine, 4/8/03
The View R.T.E. October, 2002 (TV)
Photos that paint a thousand words Irish Times 17/7/02
Manifesta 4 Suddeutsche Zeitung 27/5/02
Manifesta 4 Flash Art Magazine, July – September 2002
Manifesta 4 Frieze Magazine, Summer 2002
Love of the Irish NIFCA INFO 1/02
In the news InDublin Vol 27, No. 3 2002
New Settlements Frieze Magazine Issue 61 September 2001
Theater Eigon Magazine Spring 2001
In a square darkly Irish Times 20/1/01
Distance the Camera allows Woodstock Times 23/11/00
The Light Show Time Out New York, 10/00
Vom Drama zwischen den Akten Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 30/9/00
The View R.T.E. January 16, 2001 (TV)
City Clickers Irish Times 29/9/99
Reflections on a less then perfect world Irish Times 18/8/99
Bridging the Gap Sunday Times Culture 12/9/99
Photographs Sunday Times Culture 12/9/99
Art Irish Times 11/9/99
Between image and Text Source Magazine Summer 1999
Belfast Circa Magazine Summer 1999
Spatial experience or spatial Disorientation Katalog Magazine, Spring 1999
Wish you luck Review Magazine April 1998
Cursai Elaine R.T.E. March 1998 (TV)

Awards

Irish Arts Council Project grant, 2002
Irish Arts Council Bursary, 1994, 2000
Victor Treacy Award, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. 1998
P.S. 1 Studio program, New York, 1997-98
Fulbright Scholarship, 1994
Network North Residency, Helsinki, 2002
Irish Museum of Modern Art Artists Work Programme, Dublin, 2001
Graduate Research Summer School, Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain, 1995
Pepinieeres Europeenes Fellowship, Niort, France, 1992

Collections

Major installations in the collections of FRAC Lorraine, GAM, Turin, IMMA, Dublin, and FRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais, and Deka Bank, Frankfurt.