From October 13th to November 19th, 2011, the Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire will present Karen Knorr’s latest series, India Song, for which she received the Pilar Citoler Prize. (The prize also recognized her career as a whole.) India Song follows Fables (2003-2008), a series that depicts residences across France, undertaken with the generous support of the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature.

A depart from her earlier, societal black-and-white series like Belgravia (1979-1980) and Gentlemen (1981-1983), Knorr’s recent work has moved towards what might be called mise-en-scène, or what Christine Ollier considers, in her presentation of this exhibit, “a refocussing on architectural scenography, combining analytic, historical and literary approaches, a poetic and fictional liberty, and surprising symbolism.”

As in her series Connoisseurs (1986-1988), Academies (1994-2001), and now Fables and India Song (2009-2011), Knorr’s fictional spaces takes shape inside of “beautiful buildings” of high culture and great historical significance. The presence of wildlife in such spaces is powerfully symbolic.

India Song celebrates, “the visual heritage of a culture rich in tales and legends.” The wildlife symbolizes and evokes the religions traditions on which their society was built. Zebus, elephants, tigers, peacocks, “transform into incarnations of the society’s tumultuous divine and social history, demolishing the border between reality and illusion.” With these photographs, Knorr reinvents a “postmodern” mythology.

As a kind of contrapposto to this opulent series, the gallery will grant visitors access to Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (the subject of the final chapter in the Fables series), a building rarely seen by the public.

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Karen Knorr
Transmigrations, India Song et Villa Savoye
October 13th through November 19th, 2011

Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire
17, rue des Filles-du-Calvaire 75003 Pari
Tél. +33 (0)1 42 74 47 05
paris@fillesducalvaire.com