Moyra Davey

For New York artist Moyra Davey (born 1958 in Canada), photography, film, and video are just as important as literature. Her concentrated and often very detailed observations question forms of memory, and refer mostly to personal experiences and situations. Davey’s works explore our approach to time and history. They shed new light on the relationship between image and language, and also on that between production and reception. An important part of Davey’s artistic work are the Mailers, photographs folded as envelopes that she sends to family members, friends, and acquaintances.

The Exhibition

For her first solo exhibition in Austria, Moyra Davey is developing several new works that refer to the oeuvre of the French writer—and criminal—Jean Genet (1910–1986).

Moyra Davey’s presentation at mumok includes a new film that focuses on the processes of writing and remembering. Her subtly interwoven images, text montages, and depictions of third parties all closely correspond with elements of the life and work of the novelist, dramatist and political activist Genet.

The second part of the exhibition presents new photographs and several Mailers that refer both to this film and to Davey’s own text Burn the Diaries. This text can be read in an artist’s book especially produced for the mumok exhibition. This book also includes a further text by writer Alison Strayer and numerous illustrations.

Following the mumok exhibition, this exhibition will be on show at ICA Pennsylvania.