To provide you with the best experience, cookies are used on this site. Find out more here.

Allow cookies

Language

Mélanie Matranga: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG1 2GB
Close window

Call direct on:

Tel+44 (0)115 948 9750

Add Mélanie Matranga: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 to your Itinerary

Mélanie Matranga: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

About

Nottingham Contemporary
Saturday 22 May - Sunday 31 October 2021 (Closed Mondays)
Free Entry

Mélanie Matranga's films, installations and sculptures are at once intimate and elegiac. Her work asks fraught and timely questions about images and memory, privacy and proximity. Titled 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, this is the French artist's first institutional solo show in the UK, and all of the works here were made over the last year. At a time when we have become accustomed to confinement and isolation, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 offers a sensitive reflection on how we see ourselves as individuals, and on the social fabric that binds us together.

Matranga has, for a number of years, been preoccupied with the gap between intimacy and feeling alone, together. Fundamental to this exhibition is the way in which the private can become public. Divided into a series of rooms, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 begins with a purpose-built kitchen – a domestic space dressed with flowers and fruit that are left to decay over the course of the exhibition. This leads on to Matranga’s most ambitious moving-image work to date, People (2021), a 25-minute black and white film. Shot in the artist’s own apartment, a space which recurs throughout the exhibition as well as in her previous works, People follows individuals from the artist’s own life, playing ‘themselves’ in front of the camera. Contrasting moments of isolation and togetherness draw out feelings of dependency, angst and pain, both real and imagined. As with all of Matranga’s films, she resists a singular reading of intimacy, instead preferring to play with the poetics of pleasure and plurality.

Thoughts, gestures and words are often at odds with one another, as gaps emerge between what’s seen and what’s said. The intensity and limitations of language are implied, bodies communicating when words do not suffice. The camera wanders, looping through and around the film’s different rooms and characters. Tight voyeuristic shots blur body and language, picking at the binaries of subject/object and matter/mind.

Beyond the film, sculptural works – assemblages, domestic panoramas and a maquette of where the artist lives and works – present worlds within worlds. The spaces are haunted by personal objects including clothes and bedding, while hand stitched words and numbers echo throughout. Roughly plastered walls and visible cabling suggest that this is a space in construction, unpolished and unresolved.

The exhibition is generously supported by Fluxus, High Art, Paris / Arles and Karma International. People (2021) is co-produced by furiosa, Misia Films and Nottingham Contemporary.

People (2021) includes nudity and sexual acts. Under 18s are not permitted to view this work, and visitors may be asked to produce ID.

Book Tickets

Opening Times

Sorry, this event has passed

Map & Directions

Follow Us

What's Nearby

  1. City of Caves

    Enter and explore a whole new world in the caves underneath Nottingham city and descend…

    0.03 miles away
  2. Weekday Cross

    Weekday Cross, in the historic Lace Market area of Nottingham, was once the main market…

    0.05 miles away
  1. Eric Irons Plaque

    Eric Irons OBE, Britain’s first black magistrate and well-known campaigner for social…

    0.06 miles away
  2. National Justice Museum

    Meet amazing, costumed characters from Nottingham's history in our Grade II* listed,…

    0.08 miles away
  3. Lace Market Street Mural

    A mural, which celebrates Nottingham’s pioneering history with the lace industry, has…

    0.08 miles away
  4. St Mary's Church Nottingham City Centre

    t Mary’s Church – Grade 1 Listed and the largest medieval building in the city of…

    0.12 miles away
  5. Treasure Hunt Nottingham

    Turn today into an adventure with Treasure Hunt Nottingham

    0.14 miles away
  6. St Peter's Church Nottingham City Centre

    St Peter’s Church is one of the three mediaeval churches in Nottingham, the others being…

    0.15 miles away
  7. Debbie Bryan Crafternoons - Unique Experiences

    Crafternoons with Debbie Bryan are a wonderful opportunity to enjoy your own creativity.

    0.14 miles away
  8. Nottingham Central Library

    The library, which is part of the new Broad Marsh Car Park and Bus Station complex, puts…

    0.15 miles away
  9. Watson Fothergill Head Office

    Nottingham's leading architect Watson Fothergill has some magnificent buildings within…

    0.15 miles away
  10. Adams & Page Building

    The Adams & Page Building dates back to 10th July 1855 and sits proudly as the largest…

    0.15 miles away
  11. J.M. Barrie Plaque

    Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as…

    0.17 miles away
  12. Nottingham Line of Light Art Installation

    ‘Line of Light’, created by artist Jo Fairfax, projects five-word poems by writers…

    0.18 miles away
  13. Nottingham Council House

    It takes a building of some distinction to stand out in a city as rich in beautiful and…

    0.18 miles away
Previous Next

Related

Nottingham ContemporaryNottingham Contemporary, NottinghamNottingham Contemporary is one of the largest contemporary art galleries in the UK, presenting free exhibitions, special events, and family activities.

Street Art

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Don't Miss

Join Our Mailing List
Events | Top Attractions | Special Offers | Competitions
Follow What’s On Nottingham on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

or sign up to our newsletters for the latest updates from across the city and county.

No, thanks