Marc Johnson
b. 1986 in France
Lives and works between Paris and Stockholm
Marc Johnson is a French Beninese visual artist and filmmaker. Through his practice, he explores and traces the dynamics of postcolonialism and the unequal distribution of power between humans and other agents, such as animals, landscapes, machines and networks.
His work is the result of extensive research and investigation into forgotten and/or neglected histories. Persistent methodologies include re-editing lost or found films, re-reading ancient fables and rituals, and re-staging archival documents. This historical and referential practice conveys the importance of memory and its recirculation, which is transformed into temporal works through videos, installations and printed books.
His work has been exhibited worldwide. Important personal exhibitions include The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti - Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, United States, in collaboration with the Kramlich Collection; La Maréchalerie, contemporary Art Center, Versailles, France and The Zentrum fur Medienkunst, Halle, Germany. Johnson has participated in the Sundance Film Festival twice (2016 & 2018), the Biennale of Moscow for Young Art twice (2016 & 2018), The Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale Shorts, The Yvonne Rainer Project at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, and more than 50 film festivals worldwide.
Major group exhibitions include Ghosts of the Machine, the Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (Canada, 2022), OLHO, Museo de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2018); ATM tempo I/II/ III, Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum, Tokyo (Japan, 2017), constellation•s, new ways of living in the world, arc-en-rêve centre d’architecture, Bordeaux (France, 2016) ; trans(?)duction, CNEAI Centre National Edition Art Image, Chatou (France, 2015).
Marc Johnson received the LVMH Young Artist Award in 2009, was awarded the Jean-François et Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre prize in 2009, the Best Short Film Award from the Las Palmas International Film Festival de Gran Canaria in 2016, the Cornish Family Prize for Art & Design Publishing from the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne in 2017 and the Best Short Film Award from the 10th Annual Milwaukee Film Festival in 2018 and received the i-Portunus, European Commission’s mobility scheme for artists in 2019.
