Press Release

NEW COMMISSION FROM CLAUDE PARENT ‘THE SUPERMODERNIST’ OF FRENCH ARCHITECTURE FOR LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL 2014

Claude Parent, one of France’s most revered modernist architects, will realise a major installation for the Wolfson Gallery at Tate Liverpool which will form a key part of the 8th Biennial Exhibition curated by Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman, A Needle Walks into a Haystack. Co-commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and Tate Liverpool as part of Liverpool Biennial 2014 it will go on display from 5 July – 26 October 2014.

Claude Parent was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1923. He studied architecture at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1952 and worked briefly at Le Corbusier’s office before setting up as an architect with Ionel Schein in 1953. He was selected in 1970 to design the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and in 2005 was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In the mid 1960s Parent devised a theory, with critic Paul Virilio, the fonction oblique, for which he is most famous. This declared that buildings should be all about ramps, slopes and angles, wall-free where possible. Parent has built, lived, worked and taught in his constructions devised through his fonction oblique, taking his work as an active member of his profession to its most avant-garde limits. Among his noted buildings are Villa Drusch in Versailles (1963), the church of Sainte Bernadette du Banlay in Nevers (1963-1966), Maison Bordeaux le Pecq in Normandy (1963), French Pavilion for the Venice Biennale (1970), Avicenne Foundation (1969), formerly Iran House, the last residence to be built in the cite internationale de Paris, designed with two Iranian architects, Moshen Foroughi and Heydar Ghiai.

For Liverpool Biennial, he has designed an architectural installation that puts to practice his ground-breaking principles: slanted floors and ramps require that the audience experiences the museum anew. Works from the Tate collection by Anni Albers (Germany/US), Babette Mangolte (France), Gustav Metzger (Germany), Francis Picabia (France), Gillian Wise (UK), amongst others, will be presented, complementing Parent’s on-going passion for challenging conformity. Parent has designed a special

viewing machine for the museum as well as a ‘collective living room’ for the public to use.

Alongside the exhibition, Tate Liverpool and Liverpool Biennial will unveil a special Tate collection display, on the second floor that explores the concept of domesticity and its influence on art curated by Mai Abu ElDahab and Stephanie Straine. Including some never before shown works and new acquisitions from the collection, the display will encompass painting, sculpture, installation, ceramics, textiles and printmaking. Key works include Susan Hiller’s Belshazzar’s Feat, the Writing on Your Wall (1983-4), Richard Artschwager’s Table and Chair (1963-4), three Rugs made by Francis Bacon around 1929 when the artist was only 20 years old, Viilhelm Hammershoi’s Interior, Sunlight on the Floor (1906) and Lucy McKenzie’s Side Entrance (2011).

Claude Parent forms part of Tate Liverpool’s summer season of which Mondrian and his Studios and Nasreen Mohamedi will be part. The season, entitled Abstraction into the World, will explore the different ways in which audiences might engage with museums, emphasising themes such as modernity, abstractions and architecture.

Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, Liverpool L3 4BBOpen daily. Admission free www.tate.org.uk/liverpool

For more information on Liverpool Biennial visit www.biennial.com

Media Enquiries:Liverpool Biennial Press Office contact details (regional):Carousel PR: Jen, Fran, Rebecca & EmmaTel: 0161 686 5520Mob: 07837 817499Email:  jen@carouselpr.com / fran@carouselpr.com / rebecca@carouselpr.com /

emma@carouselpr.com

For Tate Liverpool:Alison Cornmell 0151 702 7444 alison.cornmell@tate.org.ukLaura Deveney 0151 702 7445 laura.deveney@tate.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

About Liverpool BiennialLiverpool Biennial, an ongoing platform for research, commissioning and presenting international art, education and debate, is the UK Biennial of Contemporary Art. In 2012, it attracted over half a million visitors over its ten weeks run and since its founding in 1999, has shown the work of over 350 artists from 72 countries. Since 2004,

Liverpool Biennial has contributed over £98.9 million to Liverpool’s economy.  Liverpool today offers the richest visual arts environment anywhere in the UK outside London. It has more galleries and museums, and commissions more new art than any other city except the capital and was European Capital of Culture in 2008. Liverpool Biennial festival takes place in a wide range of locations across the city, from established museums and galleries to unusual and unexpected places.

Liverpool Biennial is funded and supported by:

Founding Supporter James Moores