Structures and Layers présente des œuvres d’artistes internationaux en résidence à RU, Mehryl Ferri Levisse, Manuela Viera-Gallo, Michael A. Robinson, Ismael Kachtihi del Moral et Cho Mi Young. Malgré leurs recherches distinctifs et esthétiques, le fil commun dans leurs pratiques peut-être défini comme une préoccupation d’identités contemporaines - vu à plusieurs degrés et structurées de particules personnelles, sociales, politiques et culturelles diverses.

Avec La fondation de l’État parfait, Mehryl Ferri Levisse (franco-italien) a recherché des objets de récupération et dans les magasins de souvenirs à New-York, qui contiennent les éléments de l’histoire Américaine et les traces de son identité nationale, fabriqué par la grande distribution, comme la céramique, le papier peint, le tissu, les cartes postales et d’autres trophées touristiques divers. Enlevés de leur contexte habituel, il les organise dans un mode traditionnellement associé «au grand art» qu’est la scénographie des musées publics. Les socles et étagères murales, à l’apparence austère, crées un contraste fort avec ces gadgets vernaculaires.

Son travail souligne la notion de changement constant des valeurs culturelles et sociales et leur affirmation plus formelle et institutionnelle, en présentant également un récit rompu, semi-autobiographique de l’artiste qui éprouve l’histoire et le présent d’un endroit particulier, d’un artiste en visite.

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english version

Structures and Layers presents works by RU international artists Mehryl Ferri Levisse, Manuela Viera-Gallo, Michael A. Robinson, Ismael Kachtihi del Moral and Cho Mi Young. Despite their distinctive concepts and aesthetics, the shared thread in their practices can be defined as an infusion with concern about contemporary identities – seen as multilayered and structured of various personal,social, political and cultural particles.

With The Foundation of the Perfect State, Mehryl Ferri Levisse (French) researched objects in thrift and souvenir shops in New York City that contain bits and pieces of American history and tropes of its national identity, modified and mass produced, such as ceramics, wallpaper, fabric, postcards and other various touristic trophies. Taken out of their usual context, he organizes them in a mode traditionally associated with “high art” public museum displays. Pedestals and wall shelves, with their austere appearance, create a stark contrast with these vernacular widgets. The work underlines the notion of constantly shifting cultural and social values and their more formal, institutional affirmation, while also presenting a ruptured, semi- autobiographic narrative of the artist experiencing history and the present of a particular place, as a visiting artist.

Manuela Viera-Gallo’s (American) multimedia work is influenced by her own personal story of multigenerational migrations, displacements, search for a better life and the notion of belonging. For the mural Cronogram, she glued sawdust of a typical oak wood from her native Chile on the wall surface. The mural motifs reflect on Latin American but also global immigrant issues and are rendered in a reductive style reminiscent of indigenous art as well as early Latin American monumental revolutionary mural projects. They represent a complex allegory of a foreigner experience in a “promised land”, with for example the flag of the USA surrounded by a diamond and numerous hands reaching to them.

With How to make a black monochrome Michael A. Robinson (Canada) investigates the mechanisms of the existing art system and his role as an artist, the circulation of different materials and recurring motifs from art history that seem inexhaustibly inspiring even for the most recent global artistic production. Take the motif of monochrome, widely revisited in the last several decades, it appears that its formal and seemingly reductive language still inspires artists to grapple, in Robinson’s words, with materiality and search for meaning through the ideas of

non-objectivity. With How to make a black monochrome , a work clearly inspired by Ad Reinhardt,  Robinson  has assembled his own monochrome with black items collected in the streets of New York City. Ismael Kachtihi del Moral’s sound installation, Mon bazar incorporates meticulously recorded, manipulated and orchestrated sounds associated with childhood which trigger personal, deep memories of those times of being carefree and unrestrained. Whispers, poetical narrations, running sounds, lullabies, laughter envelop the spectator. This work reflects del Moral’s personal attempt of recalling these moments from his own life defined by multiple relocations and travels. Mon Bazar investigates how personal identity is constructed and what role our early childhood has in it.

text by Zeljka Himbele

curator

artists of the show :

Ismael Kachtihi del Moral, Mehryl Ferri Levisse, Michael A. Robinson, Manuela Viera-Gallo, Cho Mi Young

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wallpaper, pattern, motif, papier peint, ornement