Press Information
Bande à part is Elisabeth Ballet’s first exhibition for Matt’s Gallery, and her first solo show in London. Ballet’s work often relies on the use of simple materials, drawing on her sense of sculpture to dislocate the spectator. She has described her work as: '...based on displacement: from words towards objects, drawing towards sculpture, walls towards the centre, from the plan towards volume, and more generally from one work towards another.'

The main space in gallery one will be dominated by a large aluminium barrier fixed to a low breeze-block structure. This part-finished 'containing-wall' will present the visitor with the possibility that the metal barrier has been shifted from somewhere else, or could still be waiting to be moved into its final position. Two monitors placed on the gallery floor will show films of empty locations throughout Berlin - offices, shops, hotels - shot through their windows at night in slow motion, and during the day in real time.

Ballet’s installation will create the atmosphere of being outside in relation to the view through the windows, utilising the space as part of the sculpture itself. She will construct a darkened room, extending the gallery into what was formerly the kitchen, for a film showing the facade of an apartment building in Berlin. A naked man is seen periodically at one of the windows, getting closer to and receding from the frame. The sound track, recorded within another interior, works to connect the two internal spaces across the road.

Elisabeth Ballet lives and works in Paris.