CURATED BY VIENNA_2021_COMEDY

One day it will be like when we ́ve already lived*
curated by Pierre-Yves Desaive

Hervé Ic
John Isaacs
David Kramer
Jacques Lizène
Johan Muyle
David Nicholson
Philippe Ramette
Terry Rodgers
Pierrick Sorin
Gavin Turk


September 4th - October 10th

 

 

Ausstellungsansicht, One day it will be like when we ́ve already lived, Curated by Pierre-Yves Desaive, 2021

 

 


„Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.“ (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V). In this exhibition, the artists explore, each in their own way, one of the innumerable facets of the great human Comedy.
Self-proclaimed „artist of mediocrity“ (but is not mediocre who wants to), Jacques Lizène stages himself in many ways, in often hybrid artworks of which some reappear as remake several years he does not hesitate to produce „remakes“ several years later. Here Lizène is appealing to all lovers of good taste: „Collectors, you must acquire a mediocre artwork by Lizène to highlight your furniture and your stylish masterpieces!“. Philippe Ramette and Pierrick Sorin also play with their own image, the first one taking on the role of a dandy, undisturbed by the upheavals of the world, while the second struggles in delirious video sketches in form of miniatur optical theaters. Anyway „The show must go on,“ as Johan Muyle proclaims with a small kinetic sculpture on wich a curtain opens and closes over the stolen video footage of Saddam Hussein‘s execution.
Reality or fiction? On Terry Rodgers ́s side, views of cozy interiors crowded by more or less naked bodies evoke photographic snapshots - but each model has posed individually for the artist, who creates his pictorial compositions afterward. Hervé Ic also works with models and posing sessions, but to paint portraits seen from the back, in which the subjects seem to be turned towards the spotlights of a stage. The Rodox series, inwhich he multiplies allusions to art history, freezes the moments before the actors of vintage pornographic films enter the scene on the set. David Kramer designs his works also on the basis of found images, including advertising, on which he superimposes more or less deep going personal reflections, such as voiceovers in the movie film of a lifetime.
We find this game on the gap between words and images in John Isaacs ́s artworks whose titles are voluntarily complex and surround the pieces with a fictional storytelling. The artist also uses hyperrealistic renderings: in the great comedy of life, everything is often just an illusion. Gavin Turk is a master in this field; but beyond questioning what is real and what is not, he questions the entire staging of art. Finally, this exhibition needed a guardian figure, and who other than the Joker - deathly child of the King of Comedy - to embody this role? This is what David Nicholson offers us.

 


* The title of this exhibition is composed by a double quote : “It will be like when we have already lived” is taken from the poem “Kaleidoscope” by Verlaine, and the addition of “Un jour...” comes from the film by Leos Carax „Mauvais sang“ (1986).

 

David Kramer, Virtual Sunset, 2020, Burlap, Yarn, Ø 120 cm | John Isaacs, Today I started loving you again, 2003, Wax, polyester, steel, boot, stage blood, 70 x 40 x 20 cm | Philippe Ramette, Contemplation irrationnelle, 2003, Photographie couleur, 150 x 120 cm, Edition 5 + EA 2/3 | Terry Rodgers, The Good Life, 1998, Oil on canvas, 137,16 x 208,28 cm | Courtesy Aeroplastics Brussels, Xippas Paris | Foto Simon Veres

 

Jacques Lizène, "SammlerInnen, Sie müssen einen mittelmäßigen Lizène erwerben, um Ihre hochwertigen Möbel und Ihre Meisterwerke im Kontrast zu präsentieren , 1975, Eigenwerbungskunst"
Installation, Mixted technics, Approx. 280 x 480 x 28 cm | Courtesy Galerie Nadja Vilenne | Foto Simon Veres

 

Pierrick Sorin, L'invention de Morel, 2018, Optical theater, video screen, mirrors, decorum, stainless steel (black), 28 x 42 x 31 cm, Ed. 20 | Courtesy Aeroplastics Brussels

 

 

Hervé Ic, PYD, 2021, Oil on canvas, 41 x 24 cm
Hervé Ic, ATRZ, 2021, Oil on canvas, 41 x 24 cm
Hervé Ic, Lampions, 2021, Oil on canvas, 22 x 35 cm | Foto Simon Veres

 

David Kramer, Virtual Sunset, 2020, Burlap, Yarn, Ø 120 cm | John Isaacs, Today I started loving you again, 2003, Wax, polyester, steel, boot, stage blood, 70 x 40 x 20 cm | Courtesy Aeroplastics Brussels | Foto Simon Veres

 

David Kramer, Paintings, 2019, Mixted technincs on canvas, 102 x 76 cm each | Foto Simon Veres