Mette Winckelmann

For her first solo exhibition in France, Mette Winckelmann has deployed the full range of her abstract, conceptual vocabulary to deliver a veritable artwork-manifesto, joining in the ongoing conversation on gender equity and issues of identity in a society where social and interpersonal bonds have become increasingly fluid.

Flags of Freedom shines a spotlight on the troubled history of discrimination by repurposing supposedly feminine techniques like sewing, embroidery and patchwork so as to offer a counter-history of abstraction geared to gender equality and restoring arts and crafts to their rightful place in the contemporary art world. In her paintings, fabric collages, flags, ceramics, silkscreen prints and installations, the Danish artist deconstructs and revamps the rigidly defined forms and categories of abstract art by taking a mathematical approach to dealing with space, the scale of the human body and the physicality of materials. Boundaries are pushed back, rearranged and recombined in a constantly evolving process. Drawing on a variety of cultures, traditions and social movements, the resulting artistic language, with its signals and colours, speaks to the transformations currently affecting the social fabric and identity. Geometry serves as a guiding thread for Winckelmann, who feels that mathematics reflect the underlying patterns of a society and its laws. “Grey” areas thus emerge as spaces for negotiation. Through a vocabulary containing endless possibilities, the artist expresses strong commitment. And she manifests that commitment by conjuring up the movements of struggle that have meaning for all those who aim to reinvent the world or take a stand in it.