Camille Henrot facts for kids

Camille Henrot is a talented French artist. She was born on June 21, 1978. Today, she creates amazing art while living in both Paris, France, and New York City, USA.

Early Life and Education

Camille Henrot grew up in Paris, France. She went to a special art school called the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs. There, she learned how to make animated films. After school, she even helped another artist named Pierre Huyghe with his work. He made advertisements and music videos.

What Kind of Art Does She Make?

Camille Henrot is known for many different types of art. She creates films, sculptures, drawings, paintings, and large art installations. An installation is like a big art piece that takes over a whole room or space.

Grosse Fatigue: A Story of Everything

Grosse Fatigue, video still. Camille Henrot

One of Camille Henrot's most famous works is a 13-minute video called Grosse Fatigue. This video shows many different things at once. You can see screens, bodies, and computer windows all mixed together.

Henrot made Grosse Fatigue in 2013. She was working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. at the time. The video explores big ideas like feeling overwhelmed by too much information. It also touches on feelings of excitement or even a little bit of craziness.

This video was shown at a very important art event called the Venice Biennale. Henrot wanted to tell the story of how the universe began in this film. The words you hear in the video were written with Jacob Bromberg. The artist Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh performed them. Music for the video was created by Joakim.

The Pale Fox: Making Sense of Our World

In 2014, Camille Henrot created an exhibition called The Pale Fox. This show included a special way to display art. It also featured objects she found, drawings, and sculptures made from bronze and ceramic. There were even digital images.

This project was about how we try to understand the world around us. It showed how we use objects to make sense of things. A book about the show, called Elephant Child, was published in 2016.

"Bad Dad & Beyond" Series: Thinking About Rules

Starting in 2015, Camille began a series of artworks. These pieces made people think about people in charge, like parents or teachers. This series included watercolor paintings and sculptures you could interact with. It also had a zoetrope, which is a device that makes pictures look like they are moving.

For one exhibition, Henrot made special 3D printed telephones. These phones connected to unusual "hotlines" that were part of the art.

Saturday: A Film About New Beginnings

Saturday is a 20-minute 3-D film made by Henrot. It takes viewers into the religious practices of Seventh-day Adventists. The film shows baptisms from places like the United States, Tonga, and Tahiti. These scenes are used to represent new beginnings and spiritual change. This film was part of an exhibition in Paris in 2017.

Monday: Feelings of the Week's Start

Camille Henrot also created an exhibition called Monday. This show was held at a museum in Rome. It was inspired by the first day of the week. The art included bronze sculptures that were both real-looking and abstract. They showed the different feelings people might have on a Monday.

Egyptomania: The Magic of Ancient Egypt

Egyptomania is a slideshow by Henrot. It features pictures of Ancient Egyptian art objects. These objects were found for sale online in 2009. The slideshow tries to answer why this ancient civilization is still so fascinating.

The images create a mental picture of Ancient Egypt. Objects were linked by their meaning or by how they looked. For example, there were many pyramids and mummies. These are things people often think of when they imagine Ancient Egypt.

Endangered Species: Cars and Nature

Endangered Species is a group of sculptures. They are made from car engine hoses. These hoses came from cars named after wild animals, like Ford Mustang or Opel Tigra. The car models are no longer made.

This art explores the idea of things that are disappearing. It connects the idea of endangered animals to the car industry. Henrot also used shapes from traditional African masks in her sculptures.

Sphinx: Repeating Shapes Until They Change

This collection of drawings is called Sphinx. Henrot used oil pastels on regular paper. The drawings are shown on a metal board with magnets. This art explores what happens when you draw the same shape over and over.

Henrot drew a Sphinx many times on different sheets of paper. Eventually, the drawing started to look like a pattern instead of a clear picture. This makes us wonder when a repeated drawing stops being a story and just becomes a decoration.

Public Art Projects

In 2016, Camille Henrot created a public art piece called Ma Montagne (My Mountain). This artwork was made for a special art program in France.

Art Exhibitions Around the World

Camille Henrot has had many solo art shows. Her work has been displayed in museums like the Baltimore Museum of Art and the New Museum in New York. She has also shown her art in Copenhagen, Bordeaux, Montreal, and New Orleans.

Awards and Recognitions

Camille Henrot has received many important awards for her art.

• In 2010, she was nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize.
• She won the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 2013 for her video Grosse Fatigue.
• In 2014, she was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize.
• She also won the Nam June Paik Award in 2014.
• In 2015, she received the Edvard Munch prize.
• In 2017, she was given a special honor from the French government. It was called the Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Other Activities

In 2023, Camille Henrot signed an open letter. This letter supported the choice of Mohamed Almusibli as the new director of a museum called Kunsthalle Basel.

Images for kids

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  Grosse Fatigue, video still. Camille Henrot

See also

In Spanish: Camille Henrot para niños