*1997, CH
Wren Cellier lives and works in Lausanne. Their research focuses on identity, gender, relationships and embodiment through the notion of interconnection. Working with different mediums, they tend to create a specific atmosphere in a space, balancing between comfort and discomfort, vulnerability and strangeness. Using their voice and body allow them to create an emotional, poetical impact and build a connection with the audience.
« In my transdisciplinary work, I question the concepts of identity and intersubjectivity as well as the limits that determine us. Body, space and sound are the core elements for my performances and installations. For these, I create ceramics, costumes, paintings, poems. I recite texts, produce soundtracks, sing and interact directly with sets of objects within a given space in order to create a new kind of constellation and narrative. Working on issues such as gender, relationship and embodiment, I try to conceive other ways of being in or connecting to the world.
Inspired by all types of organic or bodily extensions like tentacles, roots and body shells, I am fascinated by their potential and power and by the rims and edges that they form. I question interconnections considering the space between them and try to stretch, extend or manipulate our rigid sociological and urban structures imagining hybrid and chaotic creatures in fragile and dystopian environments.
Texts by Jack Halberstam, Karen Barad or Paul B. Preciado push me into multiplying my points of view, deconstruct categories and develop my personal language. I also draw my inspiration from ancient and contemporary myths.
Intervening in a space with my body and sound is an attempt for me to enliven objects differently, imagine a strange, polymorphic world and find an emancipatory force in it. »
education
2022 Master in Fine Arts, IAGN, Academy of Art & Design, Basel
2020 Bachelor in Fine Arts, HEAD, Geneva
solo shows
2024 Espace Eeeeh, Nyon (upcoming)
2023 Qu'attends-tu pour voler, MÂT espace d’art, Neuchâtel
group shows & collective works
2022 I Hear a New World – 14 Miaows of the Future, Fondation Beyeler, Basel
2022 Peace or Never, Graduation Show, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
2021 Rewind II (no things fixed), Strecke Records, Fribourg
2021 ACT festival - édéa, Arsenic, Lausanne
2020 Common dream, flotation school, far° festival, Nyon
2020 Grand Tour, exposition de diplôme, Geneva
2020 Collectif Soupe, Espace 3353, Geneva
2019 Sammelsurium, Espace Cheminée Nord, Usine Kugler, Geneva
2019 Collectif Soupe, Biennale Interstellaire des espaces d’art, Geneva
2018 ^Hodler^, LiveInYourHead, Geneva
2018 Le plus profond c’est la peau, Le Cabanon, UNIL – Chamberone, Lausanne
concerts
2023 Wind Tunnel Festival, ZHdK, Zürich
2023 Mille rêves brûlant en moi, Fête de la Musique, Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris
2023 How to build an oerlikon dream house, Oerlikon
2023 Bongo Joe, Geneva
2023 Shapeshifter, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel
residency
2023 Transmitting Stones, Sable & Chaux, Bâle/Loco, Val Osernone