Re-de-en-un-in-learning with Laure Prouvost

In an attempt to rediscover the basics of human connection in these isolated times, Laure Prouvost has developed a new ideographic language, to promote the un-learning of language, the re-learning of words and the de-learning of previously associated meanings. The roots of this new crypto-classification system, or Legsicon, are to be found growing throughout Prouvost’s career, but specifically relate to her latest exhibition at Lisson Gallery London, where she has installed an entire Re-learning Center (6 October – 7 November 2020), offering willing visitors the opportunity to newly acquire this language of her own devising.

Challenging the conventional systems of linguistics and representation, Prouvost replaces emotive word and concepts with anthropomorphized objects, here represented by her watercolour drawings, which are then transcribed and translated into progressively complex lexical and linguistic tests and eventually entire narratives that require the audience to de-code and re-interpret them, in order to progress. Finally, a series of new stories and texts using this object alphabet, commissioned from various authors by the artist, will feature here every week, in advance of a forthcoming publication.

Here you will have to re-learn a new language to free yourself from your past. You will have to concentrate and remember what these painted objects mean. This lexicon will allow you to enter a new consciousness and to read the new stories below.