Yannick Haenel
Born in 1967 in Rennes (France), he lives and works in Paris (France)
Lac, 2023
Voices : Yannick Haenel, Natascha Jakobsen, Lena Laque
Translation : Martin Hellrich, Gabriele Rendina Cattani
Site-specific production
Courtesy of the artist
In the intimacy of Villa Heleneum, even within the folds of its history, lies a text written by Yannick Haenel on the occasion of the exhibition. The author has already worked around mythological stories related to the lake, with his short film ‘La Reine de Némi’ in 2017. The love story between Diane and Actaeon was performed again with the possibility of Actaeon surviving his encounter with the naked goddess. If, in the legend, it is a stealthy look at the deified female body that makes love impossible, in this latest story, Lac, the author dissolves the membrane between the Villa and the water, the body and its skin, and responds in a way to the Proustian definition of the subconscious. This unknown lake is that of the night that inhabits and envelops the depths of our dreams, the fire of our passions, the naked sleep between the sheets.
Writer Yannick Haenel has published novels and essays on art, including: ‘Le Trésorier-payeur’ (Gallimard, 2022), ‘Déchaîner la Peinture, Adrian Ghenie’ (Actes Sud, 2020), ‘La Solitude Caravage’ (Fayard, 2019), ‘Tiens Ferme ta Couronne’ (Gallimard, 2017, Prix Médicis) or ‘Jan Karski’ (Gallimard, 2009, Prix Interallié). Former resident of the Villa Medici in Rome, he is a columnist for Charlie Hebdo and an associate artist at the National Theatre of Brittany in Rennes.
Extract from Lac:
“At night, one slips into a lake, finally. Thoughts are blooming like paper flowers;
and right here, in the water, my body frays like an algae. By erasing myself, I become
this lake.
This crater, where the night greets me, was originally a volcano: I know this because
to live means to be ardent. Every day, with my own fire, I am the one who
digs this hole. If it is to fill up, it happens at the moment of the evening when I
fall into it. The lake only exists as soon as I lose consciousness... ”
Yannick Haenel, Lac, 2023 Exhibition view of Un Lac Inconnu, Bally Foundation, Lugano, Switzerland, 2023 © Andrea Rossetti