360 Speaker Series: Anne Le Troter

Exhibition Artist

October 26, 2019 1:30 p.m. 10/26/2019 12:00 AM 10/26/2019 12:00 AM

Language plays a pivotal role in Anne Le Troter’s works, becoming the raw material for installations that explore social mores and personal relationships. Le Troter will discuss her sound installation at the Nasher, which draws on the language used in sperm and egg donor profiles to address questions of ethics, eugenics and the role of the state in reproduction.

Open to the public. Free for Members. $10 for non-members (includes museum admission). Free for Students with ID. Complimentary wine reception with RSVP.

For her Nasher commission, Le Troter is developing a sound piece that comprises hundreds of audio samples she collected from a US-based cryobank, a facility or enterprise that collects and stores human sperm from sperm donors for use by women who need donor-provided sperm to achieve pregnancy. In the recordings, donors respond to questions on family, life, and their vision for the future, while employees provide their impressions of donors’ genetic qualities, hobbies, values, and physical traits. Altogether, the samples form portraits of prospective donors, which Le Troter distorts through the repetition of certain phrases, utterances, and pauses.

Inspired by such science fiction novels as H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (1832) and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Le Troter’s sound installation will consider the ethics of eugenics and the role of language in the endless search for an absurdist ideal.

Anne Le Troter Biography

Anne Le Troter (born in 1985 in Saint Etienne, lives in Paris, France) is a graduate of HEAD, Geneva (2012), and ESAD, Saint-Etienne (2011). Her first solo shows were held at the Arnaud Deschin Gallery (Paris, 2016), BF15 (Lyon, 2015), Espace Crosnier (Geneva, 2015) and Espace Quark (Geneva, 2014). She has also taken part in a large number of group shows, including “In & Out”, at La Villa du Parc, Annemasse (2016), “RUN RUN RUN”, at La Station and La Villa Arson, Nice (2016), the 60th Salon de Montrouge (2015), “The Generic Way”, Zabriskie Point, Geneva (2015), “Diversi Muri - un omaggio a N.O.F.4”, at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma (2015), “Le pas funambule”, at the Galerie Piano Nobile, Geneva (2013) or else “Une exposition à être lue, Volume 2”, at LiveInYourHead, Geneva (2011). She was awarded the Grand Prix at the 61st Salon de Montrouge (2016) and Swiss Art Awards 2013.

Presenting Sponsor of 360: Martha and Max Wells.

The 360 videography project is supported by Suzanne and Ansel Aberly: this support enables digital recording of all 360 Speaker Series programs and the creation of an online archive for learners of all ages.