Crise de Foi – Annette Messager

Product detailed description

The title Crise de Foi can be translated as “Crisis of Faith”. In French, however, the expression can also suggest a physical feeling of nausea or something that is difficult to stomach. For Annette Messager, this kind of double meaning is no coincidence. Playing with words, contradictions and unexpected connections is central to her practice.

The limited edition Crise de Foi is based on a work Messager created in response to protests by the feminist group Femen in support of women’s right to abortion. The work forms part of Wall of Uteruses, an installation bringing together several pieces responding to the debate. 

In Crise de Foi, Messager combines the image of the female body with the visual language of protest. A naked figure, traditionally associated with vulnerability and exposure, raises her arms in an act of resistance. Slogans and banners appear across the body in a vivid colour reminiscent of blood. Vulnerability and strength, tenderness and violence, the body and political protest meet in a single image.

This tension between opposites is characteristic of Messager’s work. She describes such combinations as “bad marriages” – bringing together words, images, materials and ideas that would not normally belong together. Humour and irony often allow her to approach subjects that are anything but light.

Created for Annette Messager: Tragikomedie at Kunsthalle Praha, this limited edition brings one of the exhibition’s most striking works into a new format. The print retains the immediacy of Messager’s drawing while allowing its powerful gesture to exist beyond the exhibition space.

Annette Messager

Annette Messager (b. 1943) is a French artist whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses drawing, photography, collage, sculpture and installation. Since the 1970s, she has worked with everyday materials, found objects and images of the body, exploring femininity, gender, desire, memory and social expectations.

Messager frequently crosses the boundaries between media and meaning. She describes herself, among other things, as a “thief of words”, using puns, double meanings, humour and irony to unsettle familiar ideas. Her works can appear playful or poetic while addressing questions of the body, identity, power and social norms.

Messager represented France at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, where she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including Centre Pompidou, MoMA and the Hayward Gallery.