Artist Pierre Huyghe: "I'm not interested in binarity." | Louisiana Channel

“I’m interested in contingency. Of what is not predictable. Of what is unknown. I think that has somehow been a core of the work.” Meet one of France’s most critically acclaimed contemporary artists, Pierre Huyghe, whose works move in the field between milieu, simulation, and video.
“I’m not here to address or to explain. To give answers,” says Pierre Huyghe and elaborates: “I would say it’s about perplexity. If there are enough playful and thoughtful ideas taking a sensitive form, I think that is what an artist is doing.” We met the artist while installing the work Variants on a small island in Kistefos, Norway. The work consists of various elements: objects, nature, and video simulation. “I have two milieux. One which is digital, which is a network that generates mutations of the existing elements on the existing elements on the island,” he explains and continues: “Simultaneously you have the physical milieu that has various censors that capture the water level, the wind, the sun, the movement of animals.” Using the AI software Dall-e, among other things, various strange forms have been created inside the simulation. Part of these digital components have been planted in the physical world and have a life on their own: “As a witness, you penetrate the island.”
“The work has its own agency. The milieu is really a milieu that has its own agency and somehow is indifferent to the gaze or to the public.” Pierre Huyghe also shares his thoughts on some of his most iconic work, including the work Untilled from documenta 13. The work took place at the compost side of a park in Kassel, Germany, “which is a place where things transform, change. It’s also a place that is unorganized,” as Huyghe says. “I used it in the same mythology. I increase the mythology by saying, ‘what if I throw elements of history in it? Or elements of fiction?’.” The result was a new milieu which included a statue of a female body with its head covered by a beehive, a dog with a pink leg, trees of Joseph Beuys, and various plants and animals. “You have something that is obviously changing and modifying. You have a contingency. You have unpredictability.”
In the piece ‘Zoodram 2’ (recently acquired by Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Denmark), the viewer again encounters a new kind of milieu created by Pierre Huyghe. “The animals have been selected for their behavior as I always do. It’s like choosing a character without choosing narration.” Fainted in color and moving so slowly that they seem still, they all have certain instinctual behaviors that unfold in the aquarium: “Each has a particularity that will come back. It’s how to create a situation that has no beginning and no end.” An aquarium can also be viewed in work ‘After Alife Ahead,’ where it’s placed in a torn-up old ice-skating rink. “When I work with environment or milieu, there is no linearity in that regard,” Pierre Huyghe says and continues: “I’m not interested in binarity. I’m more in the queer zone. I’m in the in-between. Things are not equal, but I consider them equally.”
Pierre Huyghe (b. 1962, Paris) lives and works in Santiago, Chile. The exhibition ritual is an encounter with a sentient milieu that generates new possibilities of co-dependence between events or elements that unfold. The exhibition is an entity whose time and space in which it appears are constituents of its manifestation. His works are conceived as speculative fiction and often present as continuity between a wide range of intelligent life, forms, biological, technological, and tangible inert matter that learn, modify and evolve. They are permeable contingent and often indifferent to witnesses. His work is internationally known and presented in various exhibitions worldwide. Huyghe has recently exhibited at Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway; Luma Foundation, Arles; Serpentine Gallery, London; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg. In 2012-2014, a major retrospective of his work traveled from Centre Pompidou (France) to the Ludwig Museum (Germany) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA).
Pierre Huyghe was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen in Kistefos Museum, Norway, in June 2022.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard and Kåre Broe
Produced and edited by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2021
Cover photo: Pierre Huyghe: Untilled (2011-2012)
Living entities and inanimate things,
made and not made.
Commissioned and produced by documenta (13)
with the support of Colección CIAC AC, Mexico;
Foundation Louis Vuitton pour la création, Paris;
Ishikawa Collection, Okayama, Japan
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
#PierreHuyghe #ArtistInterview #Documenta
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[@ciolocaphoto]

I dont now what this is but it is so valuable to have humans express themselfs on this high level. And This inspires and teaches people to learn about human expression.

[@osmardomingos7465]

It's so good and sadly uncommon to read a comment like yours. People tend to reject what they don't know as if something doesn't belong to their grasp is useless or shouldn't exist. Thank you!

[@ChristianVaerum]

Such a wonderful person person and artist. I had the pleasure of working with him at Kunsten, Aalborg in a performance. Inspiring outlook on life and art.

[@vidiot509]

I like how the words of the subtitles are sometimes out of context and add craziness and perplexity to this French-speaking artist. Surreal.

[@gerleszabo511]

Saw his works yesterday in Bourse de Commerce. Very very inspiring. Thank you for this video.

[@jamesg2382]

What a great talk and take on art. Thank you

[@duncand.881]

Amazing interview. Thank you for sharing and exposing me to this artist

[@thelouisianachannel]

Thank you so much.Thrilled that you liked the inteview!

[@YoSmoked]

"" one of the best things about dude is that he never takes credit for himself when he achieves something . he always respect us, the audience, and his team, and he is always polite in all of his video. we congratulate ourselves on this achievement more to come and everything to come""❤💛🧡💙 Let's we all just appreciate the content this man and his crew makes it's just a masterpiece imagine what's he's gonna doing the future ❤ I hope this channel never ends and keeps spreading happiness.❤😊

[@gogigaga1677]

MOST INTERESTING ARTIST IN THE WORLD

[@gjb7966]

been waiting for this one! :D thanks to my favorite channel on youtube for bringing it!

[@thelouisianachannel]

You’re welcome! So happy that you like our channel ❤️

[@authoritease]

Such a good artist. Still it seems like 'chance operations' in the work of Cage, following from the ancient Chinese divination method the I-Ching, which is no doubt an antecedent to Huyghe's thinking (as well as Eco's "open work" and Bhaktin's "polyphony" and more;) at this point in time it feels as easy and almost ordinary to keep things/conditions open, open to "contingency," creating situations and systems for not controlling, as it is to control or to create closure (as in more "conventional" art.) Imho, the only difference is the meanings we can ascribe to (decisions) which specific aspects of the work that are allowed or invited to remain 'open' or vulnerable to conditions that are allegedly not in one's (artist's or experiencer's) control. The mere fact of openness and endless variation is not or is no longer so compelling, and in this sense the more exciting aspects of Huyghe's works for me are in the images, forms, and themes that remain foundational or unchanging, as well as their particular aesthetic presence.

[@ryandudley3616]

Love Huyghe !

[@boschulte]

Had to watch twice. Language barrier. Two fold. Art and French. Very interesting. Couldn’t turn it off. Glad I watched.

[@thelouisianachannel]

happy that you liked it!

[@VincentVanZgegh]

La seule nécessité est la contingence de l'étant ❤️❤️

[@weikza]

genius! thank you for existing

[@ace6820]

thank you!!

[@lovepeace3041]

Merci, Pierre.

[@revrevreviews]

I heard that someone at Documenta got stung by one of those bees and died (they were allergic). I can't find any reference to it. Does anyone know if that is true? Brilliant artist. Wonderful to hear him speak.

[@assemblagenator]

I do know that’s the Hayward Gallery in London had this installed for the Human Factor exhibition. It was installed outside on one the terraces … but when I saw the exhibition they had restricted access to the piece. Your question makes me now wonder if this is why they restricted access … perhaps contact the Hayward? I know this is a stretch!

[@oli7457]

What a thin line between insanity and brilliance!

[@adelemedziute9107]

Great interview! Can the movie "Untilled" be found somewhere?

[@thelouisianachannel]

The video 'A Way in Untilled' is not currently on view online. However, the video is sometimes shown at Pierre Huyghe's exhibitions. It's also a part of the MoMA collection. www.moma.org/collection/works/200117

[@romancochet1347]

The greatest

[@pinkasarp2250]

"with your phone". . .

[@olafsager6056]

Let's make it short: I'm not interested in Pierre :):):)

[@bonnyvondolores2647]

A magnifying glass on human psyche…

[@karleenkubat9377]

Why does the monkey keep the mask on?

[@smillabutryn7517]

Boring....