Camille Henrot at Palais de Tokyo

Days are Dogs invites visitors to reflect on relationships of authority, fiction and definitions that regulate our existence. Each section of the exhibit corresponds to a day of the week; each resembles an open world in which rules, emotions and individual liberty confront each other in a playful manner. The totality functions as a composition and re-composition of pieces, both those created by Camille Henrot and those of other international artists invited by the artist, that expand the field each day. For Camille Henrot’s exhibit, Lafayette Anticipations – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette produced a unique piece, titled Garde-Fou (2017). The Fondation has followed the artist for several years, namely by supporting and including her film Grosse Fatigue (2013) into its collection. As a privileged partner of contemporary creation, the Galeries Lafayette Group also provided support to this exhibit. Camille Henrot: “The exhibit tackles issues of daily life, namely our relationship to dependence. The title comes from the Anglo-Saxon expression “dog day” which references a difficult or tiring day. I am interested in social and political relationships to which the word “dog” refers, in expressions such as “a dog’s life”, “working like a dog” or “underdog”. The dog is a familiar reference. A sign of that which connects us, but also alienates us – a sign of difficulty and frustration: a dog is always hungry… The dog is everywhere. The dog represents the banal and the repetitive form of attachment and dependency – to the rhythm of our lives, to the days and to the nights”.