This conversation took place on November 12, 2014, as part of the seminar series “Something You Should Know: Artists and Producers Today” at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris, organized by Patricia Falguières, Élisabeth Lebovici, and Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez. This seminar with Miriam Cahn accompanied her Corporel exhibition at the Paris Centre Culturel Suisse. It has been edited and condensed for this publication.
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PATRICIA FALGUIÈRES ÉLISABETH LEBOVICI NATAŠA PETREŠIN-BACHELEZ
“IN MY WORK, EACH DAY IS IMPORTANT”: CONVERSATION WITH MIRIAM CAHN
ÉLISABETH LEBOVICI: How did you arrive at the exhibition title Corporel?
How does corporality influence your work?
MIRIAM CAHN: It was important for me to show people in very different
situations and positions: lying down, standing, exposed, hidden, etc. I used this as the basis to conceive of a structure for the exhibition. In the first hall there was a long corridor, so I came up with a concept that would give people walking down it physical sensations, and others relating to memory, of what they had already seen, plus anticipation of what they were about to see. That was when I decided to use an eye-level horizontal line. People look figures directly in the eye, which leads to certain behavior. Another idea that struck us during the preparations was to put my sketchbooks on the floor, as there wasn’t enough room to install display cases. It was even better because people needed to adapt—they had to bend over, crouch, or sit. That’s how I work. If I’m not exactly sure of what to do, I install very, very quickly—in an hour, an hour and a half—and either it works or it doesn’t. A bit like the performances of the ’70s: either they worked or they didn’t. But usually it does work, and most of the time it works very well.