Some politely call it “turbulent times”, others strongly feel that fundamental rights, free circulation and societal advancement are crumbling, while elemental requisites such as a home and work are becoming the privilege of a generation. Against morose fatalism, the artist observes social behavior and organizes pessimism.  Five singular works with oblique correspondences of form or motif that question the familiar, unhinged domesticity and parallel economy constitute Xavier Mazzarol’s one-person exhibition.
Following the basic undertaking of collecting beer bottles, like the ubiquitous urban figure of the peddler, a paradigm of hedonistic culture, the artist creates a grid composition then melted the recipients in a glass oven. “Penner” (green), (brown), glass, 2017, variable dimension, are a set of translucent planks of different colors that evoke both the flattened imprint of the household object and ancient stained glass.
“Glück”, 2017, aluminum, synthetic jacket, variable dimension, a ceiling bound telescopic aluminum arm drags in circular motions an empty winter jacket on the floor; the tragic and solemn movement rotates like the vicious circle of homelessness or encampment and its exhausting research of survival places and activities.
“Home in transit”, 2016, metal, gas cylinder, plastic tube, 159 x 180 x 72 cm, is a metal kitchen unit with sink and ignition gas burners, fixed topsy-turvy on the wall like an abstract geometric painting, the brutal and ominous reversal recalls salient gestures of Arte Povera.
Taken and distorted, the everyday becomes here “Piece of evidence” and the active expression of our modernity. Away from the usual somber tone of socio-critical artwork, this exhibition exudes a sense of buoyancy in the confrontation and reinterpretation of heterogeneous elements, exploring the subtle distinction between art and life.
Xavier Mazzarol is born 1976 in Paris, lives in Berlin, studied at the Villa Arson, Nice and Chelsea Fine Arts School, London. Selected exhibitions include Unosolo, Milan; Galerie Hussenot, Paris and the Fichte Bunker, Berlin.