Press photo.
Pressemeddelelse, november 2020
Vi er utroligt glade for at kunne invitere til første udgave af vores nye udstillingsformat Young Curators Program fredag d. 13. november, kl. 16-19.
Målet med Young Curators Program er at give noget tilbage. At give plads til en uafhængig stemme i et etableret miljø til fuldt ud at udøve og udtrykke deres talent. Vi mener, at unge kuratorer, som gruppe i kunstverdenen, ofte overses i de indledende faser af deres karriere, og sjældent får det fokus de fortjener.
Derfor etablerede vi sidste vinter konkurrencen til Young Curators Program, hvor vi opfordrede kuratorer fra hele verden til at indsende deres vision for en drømmeudstilling på galleriet. Over 30 forslag blev indsendt, og en udvælgelseskomité bestående af Irene Campolmi, uafhængig kurator, Marianne Torp, seniorkurator på SMK, Sara Lysgaard, samler af ung samtidskunst og jeg selv, Sophus Gether, valgte endeligt, blandt mange utroligt kvalificerede forslag, Katia Porro med udstillingen 'Something Blue' med kunstnerne Océane Bruel og Maxime Fragnon som vindere.
Endelig efter flere forsinkelser, på grund af corona, er det mig en stor glæde at kunne præsentere vinder af Young Curators Program 2020, Katia Porro, som herunder vil introducere hendes udstilling 'Something Blue' som åbner fredag d. 13. november, kl. 16-19.
– Sophus Gether, Gether Contemporary.
Something Blue
Kurateret af Katia Porro
med Océane Bruel & Maxime Fragnon
“Become disorganised matter, blobs of chaos, slime molds.”
– Alina Popa, “The Second Body and the Multiple Outside”
I live in a place where the city meets the sea, where the rough and weathered surfaces of concrete and limestone confuse themselves while Bluetooth speakers battle over the sound of the liquid waves crashing on the solid ground. I arrived here suddenly, diving at the right moment. Rather than avoiding the approaching wave of uncertainty, I let it carry me here. Perhaps uncertainty heightens the desire for the horizon, the desire for vast, liquid bodies that have nor beginning nor end. That oceanic feeling.
I am from a place where the city meets the sea, where blue blobs of chaos – man o’ wars – are scattered across the beach forcing us to make winding trails around their slimy bodies. Man o’ wars are like balls of affect, balls that affect – a simple graze, a deadly sting. And yet, they are colonial organisms that cannot survive independently, thus functioning from a symbiotic relationship between various polyps. These creatures can be considered as ‘webs of physical intimacy and fluid exchange’ in a ‘hypersea’ of affect. In a time where proximity to others is recognised as dangerous, we are confronted with our own need for intimacy and human interaction. Like man o’ wars, our dangerous, liquid bodies must rely on each other in times of uncertainty, somehow. “Something Blue” was born from the “quivering tension of the in-between” to consider the liquid mesh that entangles us. Bringing together works by French artists Océane Bruel and Maxime Fragnon, the exhibition observes the in between-ness of bodies, spaces, emotions, materials, considering the something that happens in liminal spaces.
If Maxime Fragnon considers his works as landscapes, Océane Bruel’s works are bodies that penetrate and cohabit within the space. Each of these elements – landscapes, bodies – reveal a certain fragility and are constantly subject to transformations caused by both natural and human made forces. It is from various periods of latency that each of their works are born, relying on this in-between, liquid state. Océane Bruel and Maxime Fragnon are porous: they absorb liquid life in an ebb and flow cycle, and through various techniques, materials and space transform. Their practices are composed of a corpus of independent forms that change over time. Elements from various works circulate, combine and intervene to form new entities.
Carrier bags of things that were (Océane Bruel, Untitled (You & Me), 2019); scattered ceramics–like shells–containing organic and fragile universes (Maxime Fragnon); reflections of surface tensions (Océane Bruel, Untitled (mirror), 2020), and objects weathered by time (Maxime Fragnon, various works) are assembled in “Something Blue” to celebrate the undefinable ‘something’.
“The material self cannot be disentangled form networks that are simultaneously economic, political, cultural, scientific, and substantial… what was once the ostensible bound human subject finds herself in a swirling landscape of uncertainty.” If water is an archive of matter and feeling, the works present reveal this swirling landscape in which everything is connected yet uncertain – today’s diluted, liquid modern world and that oceanic feeling of eternity that one, perhaps, may be feeling today.
– Katia Porro.
Maxime Fragnon
Maxime Fragnon’s work is like a landscape that unfolds and transforms before us. Through series of works mixing ceramics and organic materials collected on various promenades – oysters, flowers, rotting fruit, shells, etc – Fragnon highlights the transformation of material by various forces, both natural and manmade. Time is a key player in Fragnon’s practice, as the things he gathers and collects in his studio are constantly evolving, deteriorating, evaporating, or crystallising. Maxime Fragnon studied fine art at the École nationale supérieure des beaux arts de Lyon (2018) before moving to Brussels, Belgium. In 2019, he was in residency at Moly Sabata where he participated in the exhibition Glaise Rousse. He has benefited from solo exhibitions at Galerie 25 Capucins, Lyon, France, (2018) and has participated in several group exhibitions including Toujours, Pal Project, Paris (2020); The Good, The Bad, The Purple, HVW8 Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020); and Pause in your flight, HVW8 Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2020).
Oceane Bruel
Océane Bruel creates a visual and sculptural language by combining found objects with diverse material experimentations. Sensitive to her daily environment, she highlights the precarious and ordinary with the objects that surround her. Although Océane Bruel likes to collect impressions and objects throughout her daily life, it is in the studio that she explores plasticity and vulnerability. She summons the temporality inscribed in the matter she deploys through interventions on objects in the periphery of our attention: burning candles, burnt matches, solitary earrings, pressed paper pulp, rotting fruit and crumpled candy wrappers. The result is a restless poetry, a floating humanity caught between its objects and a fragile environment. Océane Bruel studied fine art at the École nationale supérieure des beaux arts de Lyon (2015) before moving to Helsinki. She has benefited from several solo exhibitions including L Like Molecule, BF15, Lyon, France (November 2020); Habits of the Solar Plexus, sleeveless 4:00 a.m., Muu Kaapeli, Helsinki (2019); and Sleeping Phrases, AIR Sandnes, Norway (2018). She has also participated in various group exhibitions including The Gatherer, The Dumpsterdiver, The Raver, The Hunter, The Alien and The Witch, CHART, Copenhagen (2019) and L’Almanach des aléas, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris (2019).
Katia Porro
Katia Porro is an independent curator, critic and translator based in Marseille, France. She has organised various off-site projects as well as exhibitions in institutions such as the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard (Paris). She has published texts on both contemporary art and design in publications such as the Journal of Modern Craft, KLIMA, Point Contemporain, and Disegno. She holds a Masters in Contemporary Art and Curation (L’art contemporain et son exposition) from Sorbonne Université – Faculté des Lettres, as well as an M.A. in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons Paris – The New School. She thus develops a transdisciplinary practice investigating the social dimensions of the domestic space and built environment through the lens of contemporary art.
IMPORTANT!
Due to Corona we are limited by space restrictions, therefore there may be waiting time at the door. Feel free to write to us at gallery@gethercontemporary.com and let us know when you expect to arrive.
Åbning: Fredag d. 13. november, kl. 16-19.
Udstillingsperiodeperiode: 13. november-18. december, 2020.
Åbningstider: Onsdag-fredag, kl. 12-17. Lørdag, kl. 12-16.