New Laure Prouvost installation MOOTHERR on view at Louisiana Museum

19 February 2021

Commissioned for the Louisiana Museum's group exhibition 'Mother!', a new installation by Laure Prouvost incorporates found organic and electronic material, purpose-made objects in concrete and Murano glass, sound, lights and a fountain of ink. The large-scale exhibition revolves around Motherhood as viewed through changing notions of art and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

MOOTHERR takes form as a creature-like structure, resembling an octopus with it's reaching tentacles. One tentacle curves around a plastic bucket into which drips squid ink from the concrete breasts above. Animated by a light sequence and sounds of breathing, muffled conversation and intermittent cries of 'mother!', the room 'breathes', as a central breast glows and fades in unison with the rumbling sighs. Projected onto a resin puddle beneath the structure is Prouvost's latest film – a collection of images of a smoking motheroctopus with hands and tentacles, pregnant bellies and breasts.

Prouvost discusses the work in this interview with the Louisiana Channel, expanding on her use of the octopus as a being that thinks through its tentacles, and protects it eggs only to die soon after they are laid. She also compares the audiovisual components of the installation to the 'pregnant pause' much of the world has felt amidst the coronavirus pandemic, as we "wait for winter to end":

"It's really about life, and bringing new life. One life ends and a new life will start. For humans, we pass on knowledge, pass on memories. So it's a mixing, this kind of hybrid world."

The Louisiana Museum is temporarily closed. Find further information about opening times and the exhibition here.