Loris Gréaud came to the attention of international critics in 2005 with
Silence goes more quickly when played backwards, a monographic project presented at Le Plateau – Frac Île-de-France. In 2008, he became the first artist to occupy the entire
Palais de Tokyo in Paris with
Cellar Door. The exhibition was described by
Le Figaro as "a utopia," a hybrid experience between installation, concert, and performance.
Le Monde described it as "a vast organism that breathes, with moments of illumination and failure" and "a journey from the most spectacular to the most conceptual " . The project then continued at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), the
Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), the Kunsthalle Sankt-Gallen, and La Conservera (Murcia). In 2013, he presented a double exhibition entitled
[I], jointly at the
Louvre Museum and the
Centre Pompidou—an unprecedented collaboration between these two institutions. The exhibition combined two monumental installations: at the Louvre, a veiled reinterpretation of Michelangelo's
The Rebellious Slave, and at the Centre Pompidou, a performative sculpture in the form of a spiral staircase from which a man fell at regular intervals. The artist stated that he wanted to "invite the public to move from one work to the other and reflect on the path that connects them," adding: "The space between two works, the shift in thinking between them or between two exhibitions, is as important as the work itself ". In 2015, he took over the entire Dallas Contemporary (United States) with
The Unplayed Notes Museum. The opening took the form of a riot, choreographed by the artist and staged by actors, stuntmen, and museum security guards, plunging the museum into darkness and leaving the exhibition in ruins. According to
W Magazine, the installation resembles a deliberate crisis of the museum format.
Artnet News points out that "it is the traditional idea of exhibition that is being challenged and assaulted by impenetrable forces". In 2016, his first solo exhibition on the West Coast of the United States was organized by the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) around the film
Sculpt. The work, which plunges the audience into a world where the recording of thoughts becomes the subject of a global market, is presented in a 600-seat auditorium at the Bing Theater, emptied of all but one seat: the viewer is face to face with the film, which watches them as much as they watch it.
Grazia describes the project as "the most mysterious film in the history of cinema," while
The Guardian sees it as a "dematerialized social sculpture " In 2017, he participated in the 57th
Venice Biennale, where he reactivated an old
Murano glass factory with
The Unplayed Notes Factory. The installation, which included a ceiling of 1,000 smoked glass chandeliers made from hourglass sand, was described by
Connaissance des arts as "the most beautiful presentation at
the Biennale."
Wallpaper* described an almost cinematic atmosphere:
"Mist fills the main space of the installation, while the ceiling is adorned with 1,000 smoked glass chandeliers made from hourglass sand. They shine and darken to the rhythm of an eerie soundtrack reminiscent of a suspenseful scene in a science fiction film. Part of the factory is reserved for glassblowers who create the ceiling pieces using a century-old furnace. Once the pieces are made, they are hung on a conveyor belt, and from time to time, one of them falls and shatters on the floor. The glass is then collected and recycled to make new pieces " In 2018, he presented
Sculpt: Grumpy Bear, The Great Spinoff at the
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, centered on the cartoon character
Grumpy Bear, played by
Charlotte Rampling, who recites selected excerpts from novels or interviews by
J.G. Ballard in a dystopian atmosphere. In 2019, the
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris commissioned a solo exhibition linked to the acquisition of his work
Machine. The exhibition, entitled
Glorius Read, takes the form of a hidden space within the permanent collections, accessible after calling a telephone number that says: ''"Hello? Loris Gréaud, GLORIUS READ, let's meet at the MAM, go down the stairs, push the wall as if you were pushing a door, and call me back"''. In the same year, the Kandinsky Library (
Centre Pompidou) highlighted his editorial activity following the inclusion of his books and multiples in its documentary collection. In 2023, the
Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art also added around thirty of his works to its collections. In 2020, he inaugurated a permanent project at the
Fundación Casa Wabi (Oaxaca, Mexico) entitled
The Underground Sculpture Park, consisting of some twenty emblematic works from his oeuvre, buried in the cactus gardens designed by
Alberto Kalach, in keeping with the architecture of
Tadao Ando.
Beaux-Arts Magazine described the installation as "monumental yet almost invisible," "a gesture that poetically and radically questions the forms of art, its purpose, and the experience it generates". In 2021, the
Centre Pompidou acquired a series of sculptures entitled
The Multiplication Table of Obsession and Irresolution, made from casts of classical works bearing the marks of the exhibition at the
Dallas Contemporary. The series, consisting of four sculptures, is on display in a dedicated room until January 2022. In 2023, the
Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris – invited him to design an
in situ exhibition in dialogue with its permanent collections. Entitled
Les Nuits Corticales, it combines olfactory installations, light sculptures, living organisms, and sound devices.
Le Figaro notes that the exhibition "transforms the museum into a laboratory of immaterial experiences", while
S-quive describes it as "an exhibition that awakens the senses and encourages exploration of uncertainty".
Art Basel adds that "the artist captures the invisible to produce a holistic collective experience". In October 2024, he conceived
Cortical Palace: Une Nuit, Une Éternité, a unique concert by the band
The Residents at the
Théâtre du Châtelet, the first step and announcement of a permanent installation at the MAH —
Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève.
Art Basel highlighted the uniqueness of this project, conceived as a performance "for a single unreleased track". == Selection of monographic exhibitions ==