fluid
CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI, FEDERICA DAURI, ANDREAS FUX, FRED LONIDIER, DOMINIK SCHULTHESS, LOUIS-PHILIPPE SCOUFARAS, ANTON STOIANOV.
“Fluid”, under its metaphorical title, this exhibition proposes to specify notions of the inform or organic through a literal reference to fluids, particularly corporal fluids solidified within an object, paradoxically stylized. In counterpoint to allusions to Nature with deconstructed forms and convoluted lines but manufactured with emergent technologies, polymeric materials and digital imagery, the selected works in this show take a different stance in quoting or representing directly the visceral as motif, albeit in a structured and formalized expression.
In order of appearance:
Christian Boltanski (born 1944 in Paris, lives in Malakoff). “L’homme qui lèche” is part of an ensemble of radical films realized at the end of the 60’s that addresses traumatic corporeality and obsessive gestures.
In Andreas Fux’ (born 1964 in East-Berlin, lives in Berlin) iconic 90’s photographs, the artist captured “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur “, the uneasiness of a German generation expressing itself with body scarification rituals.
Louis-Philippe Scoufaras (born 1981 in Montreal, lives in Athens) realized a flawless typographic large-scale screen-print with animal blood.
Fred Lonidier (born 1942 in Lakeview, lives in San Diego) politicizes flesh. His factual board denounces the sequels that industrial capitalism and neo-liberal society leave on the human body.
Anton Stoianov’s (born 1978 in Sofia, lives in Berlin) infamous painting presents soiled socks arranged in a delicate composition.
Dominik Schulthess (born 1969 in Zurich, lives in Berlin) took painterly and luxuriously violent photographs in a private slaughterhouse.
Federica Dauri (born 1991 in Roma, lives in Berlin) choreographed the movements of two naked woman bodies lubricated with fat, compressed in a narrow sized plexiglas cylinder, leaving perennial traces on the panel of the performative sculpture.
In the selected works, as in the last syllable of “fluid”, one might identify the Id, understood in the Freudian sense as the instinctual force originating in the libido and the death drive.
All works are courtesy of the artists and xavierlaboulbenne, Berlin at the exception of:
Christian Boltanski, “L’homme qui lèche”, courtesy of the artist.
Fred Lonidier, “Lead Worker’s Blood”, courtesy of the artist and Silberkuppe, Essex Street and Benevento.