Laetitia Gendre's drawing practice is both thoughtful and compulsive, bringing this medium at the crossroads of several disciplines. Her work often materialises in sculptural or even architectural proposals that interact with the space around them and sometimes flirt with the performative dimension. While carefully crafting the articulations and ambiguities at stake in her work, Gendre aims for efficiency and simplicity of means and is wary of virtuosity. Among the many societal themes that underlie her proposals, stands in particular the questions of structural violence or surveillance, but the trajectories she proposes are always exploring areas where different realities, spaces or states of mind converge. Her work juxtaposes elements as divergent as the history of perspective with roller coasters or shooting targets, Warburg's atlas with Z-movie posters, or electronic surveillance with animal painting and comics... The cross-references offer multiple possibilities of interpretation and often reveal a tongue in cheek sense of humour. Since 2019, Gendre has also been pursuing a series of pencil drawings on A4 paper, a kind of spontaneous diary that she posts on Instagram. Laetitia Gendre is represented by Galerie Thomas Fischer in Berlin.
1998 / MA visual arts (DNSEP), Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg (FR)
1997 / Student exchange program at Edinburgh Art Academy (UK)
1996 / BA visual arts (DNAP), Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg (FR)
1991 / Baccalaureate in Applied Arts - Fine Arts, Tours (FR)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2023 / Élysée Beach Hotel, Artist Club Coffre Fort, Brussels
- 2022 / Like a Slug Sticks to the Ground, galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin
- 2017 / This is not Versailles, galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin (DE). (with support of DRAC Ile de France, AIC)
- 2014 / The Fake, The Fold and The Erased, galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin (DE)
- 2013 / ABC art fair, solo show galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin (DE)
- 2012 / Le Verbe Voir, galerie Le Lobe, Chicoutimi (Qc)
- 2011 / La Detente, La Fermeture Eclair, Caen
- 2011 / Une chose est sure, [...], SECONDroom Anvers (BE)
- 2011 / The Direct Matching Hypothesis, galerie Thomas Fischer, Berlin (DE)
- 2009 / Thank you for watching, Samsa, Berlin (DE)
- 2008 / Our dried voices, Souterrain, Berlin (DE) (support french Institut Berlin)
- 2008 / Mentalgaraj, La Maison Rouge / Le Vestibule, Paris
- 2008 / Fast fade to grey grey grey, galerie Ronmandos, Amsterdam (NL)
- 2007 / The Third Room, SecondRoom, Bruxelles
- 2005 / Le contraire d'un feu, centre d art contemporain C. Lambert, Juvisy s/Orge
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2021 / Bye-bye Her Story, centre pour la gravure, La Louvière.
- 2018 / expo/seminar, programme Lodgers, MU KA Anvers. Invitation Marc Nagtzaam / St Lucas Antwerp (BE)
- 2018 / Flip, Kask/Gent, curator Kasper Andreassen, Gand (B)
- 2017 / Detour - Instruction - Colmatage, projet exTend ed, Alexandra Sa, CAC le 116, Montreuil
- 2016 / L espace du dessin - le dessin dans l espace, Musee Estrine
- 2016 / La route des hommes, curators W. de Vleeschouwer, G. Johannes Loods12, Wetteren (BE)
- 2015 / Landing on a blank page, performance, Art on Paper, Bozar Brussels
- 2015 / The Laocoon Dilemma, curated by Jürgen Dehm, Galerie Sturm, Nuremberg
- 2013 / Souvenus de si loin, Verksmidjan a Hjalteyri, Akureyri (IS)
- 2011 / 100 drawings against vietnam war, Komplot (B) / Le Commissariat
- 2011 / Anonymously yours, Bn projects E. Lambion, maison Gregoire, Bruxelles
- 2010 / (THE OLD SOW) [...], WIELS Projectroom, Bruxelles (BE)
- 2010 / Uber zeichnung, galerie Olaf Stuber, Berlin (DE)
- 2009 / On paper, galerie Wendt&Fridmann, Berlin (DE)
- 2008 / 58T, commissaire E. Lambion, Gare Congres Brussels (BE)
- 2007 / The Cause, Kaus Australis, Rotterdam (NL)
- 2007 / Wrong time, wrong place, TENT, Rotterdam (NL)
- 2005 / Gemutlichkeit, VKS gallery, Toulouse
- 2003 / 9 bis, Saint-Etienne
RESIDENCIES / GRANTS
- 2013 / Bourse d aide individuelle a la creation, DRAC Ile de France
- 2012 / Le Lobe, Chicoutimi (Quebec)
- 2008 / Aide a l exposition, French Institute Berlin
- 2007 / Kaus Australis, Rotterdam (NL)
- 2003 / Triangle France, Friche de la belle de mai, Marseille (FR)
PUBLICATIONS / WRITINGS
- An exercise in attachment, Laetitia Gendre & Miriam Rohde, in Distraction as Discipline, book 5,
dir. Heike Langsdorf & Alex Ateaga, KASK editions, 2021
- FROM WHERE WE ARE, Laetitia Gendre and Miriam Rohde, Choreography as conditioning,
dir. Heike Langsdorf & Alex Ateaga, KASK editions 2018
- La Detente, artist book, Brussels 2011. Publie.net, invitation by François Bon.
- Se constitue a la rencontre, in Nioques 6,2009.
Chief editor J.M. Gleize,invitation Nathalie Quintane.
OTHER PROJECT / WORKSHOPS
- 2019-2022: Artistic collaboration with the RCF Project
(Comédie-Française, MIT, Université Paris Nanterre, UVIC)
Research and Creation Workshops, guest artist in 2020 and 2022. Design of the new RCF website, 2019
- 2017-2021: Tracing, capturing / filming drawing: a workshop
Reflections and experimentations about the effects and potentials of the simultaneous practices of drawing and filming.
- 2020 workshop Kask Gent
- 2019-20 One semester workshop at the Drawing department, as a lecturer, Arba-Esa, Brussels
- 2017 workshop at Esa-Pyrénées, Pau
This workshop reflects on the issue of spatiality in art and architecture. Engaged from our respective practices, it was proposed to students in several institutions: Toneel Academy (Maastricht), KASK (Gent), a:pass (Brussels), Hochschule Luzern / Technik & Architektur (CH), Symposium «Thinking through practice», H. Langsdorf, KASK Gent
- 2018: Seminary Horizontal Drawing, guest artist. Univ. St Lukas (M. Nagtzaam), Lodgers, MU KA, Antwerpen
PUBLICATIONS / CATALOGUES / BOOKS
- So What, Where, When and Why again? Fanzine published by Nieves (CH), 2023
- Plaine, participation in the last issue of Lagon revue #6, Paris, 2022
- Médor magazine, issue summer 2021 + web publications, 2021
- Mon Lapin Quotidien (regular participation), ed. L'Association, Paris, since 2021
- Support Magazine, 2021
- Ventoline, 2021
- Pavillion, artist book, ed. Crocuta 2021
- exTend ed, dir. Alexandra Sa, texte de Maryline Robalo, 2017
- Absalon on and off, artist book, Re: surgo! Berlin, 2016
- Kulturschtifung des Bundes magazine N°23, 2014
- Year 2013, Komplot, Bruxelles, 2013
- Collection revue #3, Paris 2012
- La détente, livre d artiste, Bruxelles, 2011
- Pie Bible, avec Tobias Zielony, dir M+M, ed. Verlag für moderne kunst Nüremberg, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2YAy-YFDhg
- Frederic magazine, livre collectif de dessin, Paris, 2006
- Le contraire d un feu, catalogue, ed. centre d art contemporain Camille Lambert, Paris, 2005
- Armpit of the Mole - drawing book, projet Michael Quistrebert, Fondatìon 30km/s, Barcelona, 2005
- ALORS, livre de dessins, ed. FLTMSTEPC, Paris, 2002
- Contribution à divers fanzines éd. FLTMSTEPC entre 2002 et 2005
