La Démonstration du Chapeau-Vie dans la salle d'art précolombien is a demonstration of a recurring element in Marie-Ange Guilleminot's work, the Chapeau-Vie (Hat-Life).

Standing on a plinth and surrounded by pre-Columbian statues, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, dressed in a figure-hugging, flesh coloured leotard, demonstrates how to use her 'Chapeau-Vie'. The setting is sober with a wide-angled, fixed shot.
She holds the 'Chapeau-Vie' at the level of her navel. It is rolled flat. She handles it gently, with slow, precise movements, pausing between each of its functions: it becomes a hat, then a hood. She continues to unroll it carefully, right down to her feet, making it into a dress. She sits on the plinth and pushes her arms out through invisible slits. She then goes through the same procedure in reverse order, finishing in the vertical position. She rolls the 'Chapeau-Vie' flat again and puts it back again to the level of her navel.
Rapidly, this brings out a mimicry between her hieratic attitudes and those of the pre-Columbian statues. In this setting, the demonstration puts one in mind of a ritual with its function long forgotten.

She created her 'Chapeau-Vie' in 1995: "At the start, I designed the 'Chapeau-Vie' for Hans-Ulrich Obrist, who had told me that he was always banging his head. When I offered to make a hat to protect his head, he thought that he would wear it for the rest of his life."1
Marie-Ange Guilleminot's original idea was that it would take different forms depending on how it was being used: a hat (obviously), a sleeping-bag or even a shroud.
"The Chapeau-Vie is unisex, in a single size. It adapts itself to all bodies. It can be worn at any age in life and in any circumstances. [...] It's up to you to imagine and decide on its shape and form, as well as using in as many functions as you require [...]."2

From then on, Marie-Ange Guilleminot has used her 'Chapeau-Vie' on a number of different occasions – in performances, in the PSI gallery in New York and in videos, as she did in Venice for the 1995 Biennial and in Ramat Gan in Israel, where she did a demonstration on the roof of a building.
By placing herself in a high place, on a plinth in the hall of pre-Columbian art or on a roof, she affirms the sculptural aspect of her intervention, playing the role of a living statue or high priestess of an unknown religious cult.
The creation of distance that she imposes acts as a protective element: while the objects she designs may belong to everyday life, like CaurisTM (nylon tights transformed into a backpack), there appearance in situation is codified like a ritual.

"I tried to escape from the studio by making a hat that is a hat and a tool for my work and for representations, all at the same time."3

The objects created by Marie-Ange Guilleminot only take on any meaning when they are used by her or by others. Their soft forms only exist when they are being manipulated, as they are in the videotape, Mes poupées.

Laetitia Rouiller

1. Catalogue of the Lyon Biennial, 1995.
2. Presentation kit of Chapeau-Vie.
3. Interview with Philippe Régnier in Journal des Arts, March 2000.