ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
The French conceptual artist Laure Prouvost invites Bazaar into her topsy-turvy world of fantasy
Explore the fantastical world of Laure Prouvost
‘Can you imagine we’re doing this interview in a helicopter?’ Laure Prouvost says, with a smile, leaning towards me conspiratorially. ‘But I love that we’re in the New York underground…’ We are, in fact, not in a helicopter, nor New York, but in London’s Stratford station, and Prouvost is being typically mischievous. The Turner Prize-winning French conceptual artist frequently treats interviews as an extension of her performance art, co-opting journalists into fictive scenarios, undercutting her own answers with escapes and evasions, and parrying questions with misdirection or flights of fancy.
We are here to discuss Prouvost’s first public UK commission, You Are Deeper Than What You Think, a pioneering project for Art on the Underground consisting of print and digital posters with gnomic messages for the passers-by in each of London’s 270 Tube stations. Alongside these are large-scale installations at Heathrow and Stratford, including a 20-metre sign proclaiming ‘Ideally these words would pause everything now’, all on view until 15 December. There are also covers for six million pocket Tube maps featuring an aphorism in the voice of Prouvost’s imaginary ‘Grand Ma’. She refers to this character several times throughout our interview, responding to my question about forthcoming exhibitions with the cryptic remark: ‘I should ask my grandma.’
Prouvost’s art is instructive, humorous and unsettling, playing with language and its misuse; her videos and immersive works often blur the lines between fiction and reality. In 2013, she won the Turner Prize for Wantee, a film telling the story of her make-believe grandfather, who disappears while digging a tunnel from his home to Africa. Earlier this year, she represented France at the Venice Biennale with an equally spellbinding piece, Deep See Blue Surrounding You. The pavilion was the setting for a subconscious odyssey in the form of an installation: visitors made their way through the basement into a seascape of discarded rubbish to find a video of people journeying to Venice from France. Her London Underground commission continues this theme of real and psychological quests, inviting travellers to question themselves – and what they are reading – through signs emblazoned with provocative messages.
For Prouvost, the manipulation of truth is more a question of playfulness than deception. ‘It’s about letting imagination be part of our life, not just as children but as adults,’ she says. This can be disconcerting for audiences, who are unsure where her art ends and reality begins, or whether everything they see is part of one extended artwork. Even Prouvost’s Wikipedia page includes details of her fantasy family, and according to her entry, she is ‘purported to have been born in the Croatian desert’.
How does she tread such a narrow boundary between life and art without alienating her audience? ‘It’s by inviting you to not be too precious, and also demanding you to participate. “Listen”,’ she coaxes, switching into a high-pitched voice. ‘“I want to tell you something… Oh, please take a seat, I invite you to take a seat… Come a bit closer.”’ She reverts back to herself. ‘Of course, you can reject it totally as a viewer, and go off and do your own thing, but if you play along…’
Prouvost’s preferred tool for this elaborate game has always been video. From layering sound, text and sculptures in The Artist (2010) to conjuring up a dreamlike Los Angeles landscape in 2016’s Lick in the Past, she exploits film’s potential to transport the viewer emotionally. ‘It’s where I put the most energy,’ she says. ‘It’s quite an intense medium because you use so many senses.’ Part of what excites her is how rapidly the technology is advancing: ‘It’s still just the beginning.’ Many of her peers have begun moving into virtual reality, not least Laurie Anderson, with whom she has discussed possible collaborations. ‘Maybe in the future,’ she suggests, ‘we could float together above the clouds.’ For now, however, she remains focused on creating avant-garde art that blurs synaesthetic boundaries. ‘I love it if my film stinks, or if my art punches you or caresses you or touches you…’
Together, we have been on an extraordinary journey – down to the New York underground, up to the clouds, to Venice and the deep sea – and now it ends, as eccentrically as it began. ‘We’ve done the interview in the helicopter with my grandmother,’ Prouvost summarises. ‘I was covered in mud. She was about to jump off, which is a thing she does every week. Where is she going to land? Maybe here?’ She points at a patch of dirty tarmac roof outside the station. After all, Prouvost says, gesturing to her newly installed artwork, ‘she wants to be here for the big day’.