Léna Durr

The starting point of Lena Durr's work is the collection and organisation of hundreds of valueless objects. While the collection seems endless, it does eventually settle into its own logic, as the objects group together, fall into place, and coordinate in reinvented spaces or in catalogues/books. Multiplicity in multitude, dozens of plastic ducks, girl's leotards, naked dolls, plastic Virgins: as the spaces that the artist occupies fill up with all sorts of trinkets, they become permeated with a strange atmosphere that combines a form of nostalgia and obsessional presence. While this bric-a-brac confirms an overall taste for kitsch, if not sordidness, it is shown with troubled tenderness. This type of mise en scene based on the great paintings of the history of art is also present in Lena Durr's photographic work, in which she hires non-professional models to pose in amusing and meticulous re-enactments.