Versailles by Joana Vasconcelos

" How would the life of Versailles look if this exuberant and grandiose universe was transferred to our period?"
~~ Joana Vasconcelos


After the American Jeff Koons, the Japanese Takashi Murakami, and the French Xavier Veilhan and Bernar Venet, the Portuguese Joana Vasconcelos will be the first woman and the youngest artist also to show her work in the setting of the legendary palace.

Joana Vasconcelos does not seek to fit into Versailles, but to incorporate Versailles, meet it rather than clash with it. Her work, made up of redirections, metamorphoses and displacements of objects, cuts across time and shifts the symbols: here the royal silk and brocade fabrics for the Valkyries, there wood marquetry for Perruque that recalls 18th century furniture.... Profoundly anchored in Portuguese culture, Vasconcelos proposes a visual language perceptible by all. Many of her works are imbued with warm feminine sensuality.

My work has developed around the idea that the world is an opera, and Versailles embodies the operatic and aesthetic idea that inspires me. When I stroll through the rooms of the Palace and its Gardens, I feel the energy of a setting that gravitates between reality and dreams, the everyday and magic, the festive and the tragic. I can still hear the echo of the footsteps of Marie-Antoinette, and the music and festive ambiance of the stately rooms.
Interpreting the dense mythology of Versailles, transporting it into the contemporary world, and evoking the presence of the important female figures that have lived here, while drawing on my identity and my experience as a Portuguese woman born in France, will certainly be the most fascinating challenge of my career.
~~ Joana Vasconcelos


Born in Paris in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos lives and works in Lisbon.

Joana Vasconcelos  Versailles

Valquíria Enxoval (Valkyrie Trousseau), 2009, Gallery of Battles

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

 Golden Valkyrie, 2012, Gallery of Battles. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Royal Valkyrie, 2012, Gallery of Battles. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

 Marilyn (AP), 2011, Hall of Mirrors. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photomontage/Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ DMF, Lisbon/Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

 Lilicoptère, 2012, The 1830 Room. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Le Dauphin et La Dauphine, 2012, Antechamber of the Great Dining Hall. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Perruque, 2012, Queen's Bedchamber

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Gardes, 2012, Salle des Gardes de la Reine (The Queen's Guardroom). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Coração Independente Preto (Black Independent Heart), 2006, War Room
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Coração Independente Vermelho (Red Independent Heart), 2005, Peace Room

Photomontage / Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ DMF, Lisbon/Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Mary Poppins, 2010 (Valkyries series), Gabriel Staircase. Collection of the artist.

Photomontage / Photo credit: Château de Versailles/ Peter Mallet/ Courtesy Haunch of Venison, London. Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Pavillon de Thé, 2012, Parterre du Midi (The South Garden). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London

Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Pavillon de Vin, 2011, The South Garden. Collection of the artist; Courtesy Societé EFFI/Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Blue Champagne, 2012 (Candlesticks series), Parterre d'Eau (Water Garden). Collection of the artist; Courtesy Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels and Haunch of Venison, London
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos / © Unidade Infinita Projectos

Joana Vasconcelos Versailles 
This exhibition is curated by Jean-Francois Chougnet

June 19 - September 30, 2012

Courtesy of the artist / Château de Versailles
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