Tonight, Tuesday October 16th at 18:00 - Palais de Tokyo Flash Art Conversation with: Markus Schinwald, Michele Robecchi, Jean de Loisy

Tokyo Art Club, Palais de Tokyo, 13, avenue du Président Wilson, 75 116 Paris

Flash Art Conversation is a series of discussions powered by Flash Art International that aim to investigate different aspects and practices of the most controversial yet influential contemporary art figures. In this first rendezvous, Flash Art invited Austrian artist, Markus Schinwald to discuss his practice of painting and his relation to space - object and public with London-based writer and curator Michele Robecchi and Palais de Tokyo director Jean de Loisy.  Schinwald, who represented Austria at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, just inaugurated his monographic show at Palais de Tokyo. In the exhibition, he explores the monumental architecture of the Palais in order to conceive a theatrical installation which, due to the strong relation between shadows and lightning, invites the visitors to discover a disturbing, harrowing universe.

Markus Schinwald is developing a protean body of work borrowing from the worlds of spectacle – dance, performance, opera – to stage human bodies metamorphosed by prostheses, accessories, strange physical extensions. This manipulation process transforms the body into a cultural object, an artifact. It will be said, moreover, that this physical and psychological testing of the body, this metamorphosis, is pushed to the ultimate in his most famous film, Dictio pii (2001), acquired by Tate Modern.

Slected solo shows: 2012: Yvon Lambert, Paris; Gio' Marconi, Milan 2011: 54th Venice Biennale, Austrian Pavillon, Kunstverein, Hannover;  2009: Kunsthaus Bregenz. 2008: Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg; Gió Marconi, Milan; Migros Museum, Zurich. 2007: Center for contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece. 2006: Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA; MAMbo, Bologna, Italy; Argos, Brussels; CAC Brétigny, France. 2005: Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst, Münster, Germany. 2004: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt. 2003: Georg Kargl Vienna. 2001: Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Selected group shows: 2012: "Eight Exhibition", La Conservera, Murcia, Spain; "Two exhibitions", Museum Moderner Kunst, MUMOK, Vienna. 2011: "Secret Society", CAPC, Bordeaux. 2010: "Two Exhibitions", Para/Site art space, Hong Kong; Liverpool Biennal, different venues; "Scene Shift", Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm. 2009: "Videorama", Kunsthalle, Vienna. 2008: “Archeology of Mind,” Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples; “Shifting Identities,” Kunsthaus, Zurich; “The World As a Stage,” ICA, Boston/Tate Modern, London. 2007: “Hard Rock Walzer,” Villa Manin, Codroipo, Italy; “True Romance,” Kunsthalle, Vienna; “Depiction, Perversion, Repulsion, Obsession, Subversion,” Witte de With, Rotterdam. 2006: 4th Berlin Biennale. 2005: T1, Turin Triennial; “E-fl ux Video Rental,” Portikus, Frankfurt. 2004: “3’ Condensed Information,” Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Manifesta 5, San Sebastian, Spain. 2003: 50th Venice Biennale, Venice.

Michele Robecchi is a writer and curator based in London. Former Managing Editor of Flash Art (2001-2004),  Senior Editor of Contemporary Magazine (2005-2007), he is currently an editor for contemporary art at Phaidon Press, a Visiting Lecturer at Christie’s Education, and London Editor of Mousse Magazine. He has curated “TIP: Trends Ideas Projects” (Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2004), ”Beauty So Difficult” (Fondazione Stelline, Milan, 2005), and was one of the curators for the 1st and 2nd Tirana Biennale (2001-2003).