Galerie Perrotin presents the Paris debut of “Elysée” by artist Laurent Grasso, who received special authorization to shoot the film in the Salon Doré, the office of the President of the French Republic.
After premiering in Hong Kong, Seoul and Ajaccio (as part of the Paramuseum exhibition at the Palais Fesch) and at a time when numerous candidates dream of entering the office, “Elysée” will be showing from January 7 to 14, 2017 in the Espace Saint-Claude of the Galerie Perrotin.
With “Elysée”, Laurent Grasso offers a unique reflection on the esthetics and representation of power. A genuine incursion into the hushed secrets of the Salon Doré in the Elysée Palace, the film brings to light objects from the past and present, the decorum of the presidential function. “My work always takes its point of departure in reality, which provides a support for the imagination,” explains Laurent Grasso. The camera lingers and grazes all these objects with a certain intimacy which creates a temporal telescoping and displacement.
Produced on the invitation of the Archives Nationales in 2016 for the exhibition “Le secret de l’Etat”, and shot by a real film crew, “Elysée” is the first of a series of films that Laurent Grasso wishes to devote to places of power. The film’s original score was composed by Nicolas Godin, one of the members of the group Air.
As often in his work, Laurent Grasso delves into other fields of research, both historical and scientific. The film takes its basis in “The King’s Two Bodies” by Ernst Kantorowicz, positing the idea of a power continuum that goes beyond its incarnation in a single person. The Salon Doré in the Elysée Palace, the French President’s place of work, becomes the focus of a highly symbolic space that fuels the imagination
Laurent Grasso’s “Elysée” is an elegant and profound exploration of the multiple facets of power, an opaque and dazzling subject.
Duration: 16 minutes 29 seconds
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