Laure Prouvost. We Will Go Far

Winner of the prestigious Turner Prize in 2013, her artistic output constantly returns to themes of escape into unfamiliar worlds or imaginings of unexpected alternative environments. The selection of work on show at Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art underscores these elements that have characterised her work since the mysterious disappearance of her artist grandfather (the central figure of Wantee, 2013). Laure Prouvost's most emblematic works can be seen here plus a new commission especially made for Rochechouart Castle, The Smoking Image, inspired by her current interest in adolescence and travel.

Laure Prouvost (b. 1978, based in London and Antwerp) structures her work as independent story strands that weave and intersect from piece to piece, creating an amalgam combining fiction and reality. The resulting work often takes the form of immersive installations made up of films, objects, collages and narrative fragments sometimes specifically implicating visitors. In The Smoking Image, Laure Prouvost has researched and imagined a story about teenagers living in the countryside, experiencing their first amorous adventures, dreaming of escaping, striking out on their own and for whom a scooter provides the path to freedom and independence. Visitors traverse the teenagers' world as they move through the castle roof gallery, finally reaching a "motorcycle-tapestry" which serves as a screen for the projection of the film shot in Rochechouart.

The present exhibition "We Will Go Far" and especially The Smoking Image constitute a new chapter in Laure Prouvost's investigation into the fuzziness of identity, communication between individuals, over-abundance of images, dream worlds and on everyone's right to retreat into their imagination.