Mon Grand-Père , 2007
Book, 17 x 10.2 cm, 63 p, language: French (available in Spanish and Swedish), publisher: Editions Allia, Paris, ISBN: 284485009X.
©image: M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/171).
Literary synopsis
Irony and banality are on the menu in Mrejen’s first novel, Mon Grand-Père, a tender, autobiographical portrait of a sometimes plain ordinary, yet often dysfunctional, family with a slightly shady despot of a grandfather.
Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice
All her three novels, which were published in 2005 under one title, Trois Quartiers, are characterized as much by their terseness and Parisian setting as by their distinct literary style — short blocks of text, chronologically shuffled and fragmented in such a way that they could act as written mini-storyboards for one of Mrejen’s films.
Authorship: Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: Artwork-Novel Parallel Lives.
Genre: Autobiography.
Publishing: Publishing House.
Theme: Childhood, Family Secrets, Love, Memory, Subjective Experience.
Artist
> Valérie Mréjen.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: Book Lovers 4.0 (Pop-up Bookstore). De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 28 January 2014 - 02 February 2014.
> Exhibition: THE BOOK LOVERS - A Project about Artist Novels. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 25 January 2013 - 09 March 2013.
> Exhibition: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ARTWORK BECOMES A NOVEL?. M HKA, Antwerp, 07 December 2012 - 21 April 2013.
> Exhibition: The Preparation of the Novel (Book Lovers 5.0). Fabra i Coats - Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, 18 July 2014 - 05 September 2014.
> Ensemble: The Artist's Novel.