Fond of neologisms and of extending the meaning of existing forms and objects in new directions, Francisco Berna presents, in this first gallery’s exhibition, eight separate sculptures outlining an architectonic ensemble that resonates within the particularity of the exhibition space.
Since the invitation to present a show nine months ago, the artist has completely stopped to operate any cleaning in his studio and living space. Few weeks before the exhibition, he poured pure latex on his floor and peeling up the elastic material realized a symbolic print of his daily material life in Berlin, recording dust, dirt, fluids, food, chemicals etc. The epic floor piece (190 x 600 cm) reflects and corrupts the pristine wood flooring of the main exhibition room.
Five large poles (300 x 6 x 6 cm) seem to support the entire space. Made of the stripped surface of a wall in the artist’s studio that has been accidentally burnt, these totemic objects are painstakingly juxtaposing pieces of sooted plasters to recreate the wall in a puzzled and condensed form.
In the second room, two works partially made of latex and pigments enter in dialogue with the remnant industrial architecture. One free standing sculpture on rusted metal crippled legs evokes an arachnean shape or an unsettling plant, while another form suspended from the ceiling in a net violently recalls a sack of organs or scorched flesh.
If this work insists on the physicality of existence, the physical substance of being coexisting with the denied or distanced dejection of our slick post-technological culture, it also implies a potential queer erotic resonance.
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