On last september, We, Alexandra David and I, were in art residency in a nursing home in France. We lived there for a month, we ate and slept there, we met old people and all the staff. from this very interesting experience, we did an exhibition curated by Vincent Verlé (curator of the CAB in Grenoble) in october 2009.
Here is the video of the exhibition inside the nursing home.
more photos are visible on the blog MDR (blog of our residency)
Showing posts with label sculpture-installation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sculpture-installation. Show all posts
Knot #1 – Frankie Morello meets art from june 23rd to july 4th 2009
(click on the picture to see all the photos)
Sophie Usunier
Les Empaillés
Curators: Rossella Moratto and Marco Tagliafierro
Flagship store Frankie Morello C.so Matteotti 3, Milano.
June 22 - July 4, 2009
Inauguration: June 22, 2009, 6:30 pm
Venue: Frankie Morello Flagship Store, C.so Matteotti 3, Milan
Times: from 10 am to 7 pm – Admission free Info: +39 02 54 05391
On Monday June 22 Frankie Morello will present a site-specific project by the French artist Sophie Usunier, entitled Les Empaillés, in the spaces of the brand’s first flagship store, recently opened in Milan.
The exhibition, organized by Rossella Moratto and Marco Tagliafierro, is the first event in a more far-reaching program called Knot – Frankie Morello Meets Art, stemming from the great passion for contemporary art nursed by the designers Maurizio Modica and Pierfrancesco Gigliotti, the brand’s moving spirits, who are already collectors and aspire to become patrons.
Mixture, variety and interaction characterize the research and style of Frankie Morello and are at the root of Knot, whose aim is to create an open dialogue with art and its expressions.
Les Empaillés (Stuffed) is a project that was launched in 2003. It consists of a series of “sculpture-installations” made out of cast-off clothes which the artist collects from the inhabitants of the place where the work is to be exhibited. In the case of Knot #1, Usunier has asked Frankie Morello to let her use vintage garments that cover ten years of the brand’s history, giving them a new significance by altering their original shapes, deforming them, inflating them and stuffing them with straw after having sewn them together. Making use of a wide range of techniques and languages, the artist reworks the mechanisms that govern our perception of the world, offering us fresh and unconventional points of view.
“My reflection,” explains the artist “is of an anthropological character. Les Empaillés should not be seen merely as sculptures, but also as objects to be lived, to be brought to life”.
This is how Frankie Morello comments on Sophie Usunier’s work: “We will have the possibility of discovering an interesting interpretation of our clothes, taken out of their context and adapted to a new purpose. We find recycling, reutilization and regenerated spaces fascinating.”
Sophie Usunier was born in France in 1971. She lives and works in Milan and Nancy. After studying at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, she has held exhibitions in France, Germany and Italy, at such institutional and private venues as: the PAV in Turin; the FRAC Lorraine in Metz; the Fondazione SoutHeritage in Matera; Lago with the Fondazione March in Padua; the Museo Laboratorio in Città Sant’Angelo; the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa; the Galleria Placentia Arte in Piacenza; NeonProjectBox in Milan; the Galleria Note Artecontemporanea in Arezzo.
The Frankie Morello Fashion House was born in 1999 out of the encounter between Maurizio Modica and Pierfrancesco Gigliotti.
The brand, owned by the two designers, has in recent years made important license agreements covering clothing, underwear and beachwear (Frankie Morello Sexy Wear), shoes, bags, sunglasses and children’s footwear (Frankie Morello Toys).
In 2008 it opened its first headquarters in Milan, a space of 850 sq m that houses the style office and press office.
In February 2009 it opened its first flagship store in Milan, at Corso Matteotti, 3a. Present in the best showcases of the fashion circuit and published in the world’s most prestigious periodicals, the brand is a favorite with many celebrities.
GUARDA INDIETRO PER NON ESSERE TRAVOLTO, installation, 2005
( look behind in order not to perish)
The sculpture which is made of salt will then be placed in a meadow where animals will continue to sculpt it with their tongues until it disappears.
The sculpture which is made of salt will then be placed in a meadow where animals will continue to sculpt it with their tongues until it disappears.
“Guarda indietro per non essere travolto” (Look behind not to perish) emphasizes her interest for ethno-anthropological studies about our territory. Famous researchers such as De Martino, Friedmann, De Rita’s works become therefore subjects able to materialize themselves into an idea of a sculpture-installation that recalls psychological and sociological thematics such as the nature of the relationship between myth and rite, superstition, symbolical efficiency, the reality of magical powers.”
(Angelo Bianco, curator, 2005)
LES EMPAILLES, 2003-work in progress
(old clothes, straw)
Conserving, stuffing clothes with straw like dead animals used to be stuffed. Like taxidermists that try to bring the animals back to life, but in presence not in its initial form. Stuffing the clothes like animals, to the limits of what the skin or the clothes can take. Deforming them, bloating them.
This process is like trying to give back life to the old clothes, but with straw instead of bodies and in an excessive stuffed and bloated way as to deform them.
The special process of the installation is also important to the artefact. I asked people living in the city where the show was to take place, to give me their old-fashioned and used clothes no longer worn. I sewed them together in their extremities in order to make them into one object, one piece._They were then stuffed in order to conserve them like as a species on the way of extinction. I preserved them like a "second skin"of mankind. This second skin which is so important in determining family origins or social status for each human being.
Conserving, stuffing clothes with straw like dead animals used to be stuffed. Like taxidermists that try to bring the animals back to life, but in presence not in its initial form. Stuffing the clothes like animals, to the limits of what the skin or the clothes can take. Deforming them, bloating them.
This process is like trying to give back life to the old clothes, but with straw instead of bodies and in an excessive stuffed and bloated way as to deform them.
The special process of the installation is also important to the artefact. I asked people living in the city where the show was to take place, to give me their old-fashioned and used clothes no longer worn. I sewed them together in their extremities in order to make them into one object, one piece._They were then stuffed in order to conserve them like as a species on the way of extinction. I preserved them like a "second skin"of mankind. This second skin which is so important in determining family origins or social status for each human being.
CHIMERES, scuptures, installations, video, 2001
Not objects but light and shadows
Sophie Usunier works on concept contradictions.
Her works hold “contrast” original strength.
It is as they were offering us a glimpse of their very opposite.
Is it a hesitation? No, it is not.
It is just a way to ask and experiment questions.
The works included in this exhibit all represent a contrast between shape and shapeless.
Thus the audience might become part of it through routine or discovery.
Glass monsters become modern exorcists of the fear for the unknown.
Gargoyles’ belligerence together with carillons hypnotic strength become a new Chimera.
The glass harpy is dangling in the air.
Comparing the two we realize the latter seems heavier.
It is a strange creature that has anything to do with the audience’s idea of form and interaction.
Yet inexplicably its own abnormality is intimate and fragile.
We should hide and protect our fears instead of hiding brutalizing them.
I don’t know if this is due to our opinions or to our emotions.
Although I am sure the harpy is something pure, almost crystal clear.
Since it has nothing to hide - no “deviant thoughts” - it may emerge.
Since it has no stated containers, it is unable to contain too.
Its own substance makes it unreal.
This glass monster is the very immaterial element of its corporeity.
Paraffin hands have a specific, familiar shape.
Yet they turn into an apparition, becoming fascinating and beautiful ghosts.
They are inside a small studio, as they could be in a convent cell or inside a mine.
They are static, still aiming to perfectly understand what they will have to do.
Theirs is a prey, but while the mind is struggling the hands get distracted and play with their negative, their own shadow.
Their attention is absorbed in the only action related to their very form.
They outline an unreal space: Shadows on the wall.
Instead of reproducing their strength, they create their double, a game, a monster, a black shadow too; everything but their solidity.
Elements that the pure and elusive hands already hold.
They all can be used up and disappear the very moment they struggle to “brighten up”.
This is true creation, joyful and unforeseeable too.
The plasticine sphere is the most recognizable shape of all.
Yet it becomes a symbol of monstrosity.
Its own substance is impenetrable, and opaque, becoming mere surface.
It is an unforeseeable “being”, we do not know what to expect.
It looks like a solid and real body, but if we touch it we “break” it modifying it too.
It is inorganic but we fear it can spoil though.
It is like men looking for perfection.
Plasticine is hardly worked to turn it into a ball, it aims to perfection.
One can keep on turn it from one side to another, but the focus lens cannot focuses it.
It is both the very apotheosis and paradox of men’s actions from Plato to nowadays.
Men intervene to heal the gap between idea and substance, soul and body aiming to give a real shape to ideas and vice versa.
The sphere is controlled by movement itself.
There is a video of hand working a plasticine sphere, like an obsessive and unprovoked action.
It seems almost care-free, like a child’s action.
The confrontation moves between presence and image.
It finally creates a whirlpool, inducing a state of anxiety, and the silence resulting from overturned proportions too.
The small ball we could keep in our hands it is no longer under our control though.[...]
(Lorenzo Bruni, curator of the exhibition, galery Arte Note Contemporanea, Arezzo, 2001)
Sophie Usunier works on concept contradictions.
Her works hold “contrast” original strength.
It is as they were offering us a glimpse of their very opposite.
Is it a hesitation? No, it is not.
It is just a way to ask and experiment questions.
The works included in this exhibit all represent a contrast between shape and shapeless.
Thus the audience might become part of it through routine or discovery.
Glass monsters become modern exorcists of the fear for the unknown.
Gargoyles’ belligerence together with carillons hypnotic strength become a new Chimera.
The glass harpy is dangling in the air.
Comparing the two we realize the latter seems heavier.
It is a strange creature that has anything to do with the audience’s idea of form and interaction.
Yet inexplicably its own abnormality is intimate and fragile.
We should hide and protect our fears instead of hiding brutalizing them.
I don’t know if this is due to our opinions or to our emotions.
Although I am sure the harpy is something pure, almost crystal clear.
Since it has nothing to hide - no “deviant thoughts” - it may emerge.
Since it has no stated containers, it is unable to contain too.
Its own substance makes it unreal.
This glass monster is the very immaterial element of its corporeity.
Paraffin hands have a specific, familiar shape.
Yet they turn into an apparition, becoming fascinating and beautiful ghosts.
They are inside a small studio, as they could be in a convent cell or inside a mine.
They are static, still aiming to perfectly understand what they will have to do.
Theirs is a prey, but while the mind is struggling the hands get distracted and play with their negative, their own shadow.
Their attention is absorbed in the only action related to their very form.
They outline an unreal space: Shadows on the wall.
Instead of reproducing their strength, they create their double, a game, a monster, a black shadow too; everything but their solidity.
Elements that the pure and elusive hands already hold.
They all can be used up and disappear the very moment they struggle to “brighten up”.
This is true creation, joyful and unforeseeable too.
The plasticine sphere is the most recognizable shape of all.
Yet it becomes a symbol of monstrosity.
Its own substance is impenetrable, and opaque, becoming mere surface.
It is an unforeseeable “being”, we do not know what to expect.
It looks like a solid and real body, but if we touch it we “break” it modifying it too.
It is inorganic but we fear it can spoil though.
It is like men looking for perfection.
Plasticine is hardly worked to turn it into a ball, it aims to perfection.
One can keep on turn it from one side to another, but the focus lens cannot focuses it.
It is both the very apotheosis and paradox of men’s actions from Plato to nowadays.
Men intervene to heal the gap between idea and substance, soul and body aiming to give a real shape to ideas and vice versa.
The sphere is controlled by movement itself.
There is a video of hand working a plasticine sphere, like an obsessive and unprovoked action.
It seems almost care-free, like a child’s action.
The confrontation moves between presence and image.
It finally creates a whirlpool, inducing a state of anxiety, and the silence resulting from overturned proportions too.
The small ball we could keep in our hands it is no longer under our control though.[...]
(Lorenzo Bruni, curator of the exhibition, galery Arte Note Contemporanea, Arezzo, 2001)
GARLAND OF ROSES, sculpture, installation, 2002-2006
Roses generally refer to the flowers, their red colour and to a pleasant fragrance.
GARLAND OF ROSES is the etymological translation of Rosary (lat. rosarium), a catholic object used for praying in the honour of the Virgin Marie.
This garland of roses represents like an opposite to roses. It is still an object in the shape of a rosary but white, immaculate, a ghost with clinging smell. Instead of the flower's perfume, we smell something that reminds us a past memory, a smell that haunts grand-mothers wardrobes:
Naphthalene.
The Rosary, like naphthalene, belongs to the past. It is therefore presented in a glass container, like a relic, something holy but that is no longer in use.
GARLAND OF ROSES is the etymological translation of Rosary (lat. rosarium), a catholic object used for praying in the honour of the Virgin Marie.
This garland of roses represents like an opposite to roses. It is still an object in the shape of a rosary but white, immaculate, a ghost with clinging smell. Instead of the flower's perfume, we smell something that reminds us a past memory, a smell that haunts grand-mothers wardrobes:
Naphthalene.
The Rosary, like naphthalene, belongs to the past. It is therefore presented in a glass container, like a relic, something holy but that is no longer in use.
LA METAMORPHOSE, installation, 2000
def.dictionary:
1. A change of form, structure, or substance.
2. (Figurative.) A noticeable or complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, or condition.
3. A change in form, shape, or substance by or as if by witchcraft; transformation.
4. The changed form resulting from any such change.
5. A marked change in the form, and usually the habits, of an animal in its development after the embryonic stage. Tadpoles become frogs by metamorphosis; they lose their tails and grow legs.
6. The structural or functional modification of a plant organ or structure during the course of its development.
7. (Physiology.) Metabolism.
1. A change of form, structure, or substance.
2. (Figurative.) A noticeable or complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, or condition.
3. A change in form, shape, or substance by or as if by witchcraft; transformation.
4. The changed form resulting from any such change.
5. A marked change in the form, and usually the habits, of an animal in its development after the embryonic stage. Tadpoles become frogs by metamorphosis; they lose their tails and grow legs.
6. The structural or functional modification of a plant organ or structure during the course of its development.
7. (Physiology.) Metabolism.
“Sophie Usunier works on castle stereotypes, the fortifying way fables and archetypical myths have. She represents a loss, a change, the passage from a protected space in confrontation with the outside world, with others, giving voice to the theme of fear and desire of young girls”
Lorenzo Bruni (curator and art critic for the exhibition, Castello di VicchioMaggio, Greve in Chianti, tuscany)
GLI ANIMALI DI BREMEN, installation, 2000
(4 cardboard boxes, 4 walkmans, 4 speakers, 4 photocells)
4 different sized cardboard boxes are piled up to look like a perforated Babel tower. Each box utters a different animal sound when you come close to it. From top to bottom, a rooster, a cat, a dog and a donkey can be heard. This installation recalls the Brother Grimm’s fable “The musicians of Bremen” when during the night the animals jumped on each others backs to make the thieves in the forest believe they were one big monstrous animal. In this process, they became a frightening indefinite form, a huge unusual shadow that slowly approached the thieves with shouts and screams in a cacophonic way.
Animals of Bremen is in its total, based on imagination, which therefore also recalls another reference: Saint Exupéry’s “little Prince”. The boxes are like the box which contains the little prince’s sheep.
Any box, drawn or real, is able to contain anything, and stimulates our imagination. Once it is perforated, in our imagination, it means that there is something alive inside that needs oxygen to breathe. The being that is inside remains a mystery, only the sound brings us an idea of its form.
4 different sized cardboard boxes are piled up to look like a perforated Babel tower. Each box utters a different animal sound when you come close to it. From top to bottom, a rooster, a cat, a dog and a donkey can be heard. This installation recalls the Brother Grimm’s fable “The musicians of Bremen” when during the night the animals jumped on each others backs to make the thieves in the forest believe they were one big monstrous animal. In this process, they became a frightening indefinite form, a huge unusual shadow that slowly approached the thieves with shouts and screams in a cacophonic way.
Animals of Bremen is in its total, based on imagination, which therefore also recalls another reference: Saint Exupéry’s “little Prince”. The boxes are like the box which contains the little prince’s sheep.
Any box, drawn or real, is able to contain anything, and stimulates our imagination. Once it is perforated, in our imagination, it means that there is something alive inside that needs oxygen to breathe. The being that is inside remains a mystery, only the sound brings us an idea of its form.
ANTICORPS ( antibodies), sculpture, installation, 1999-2000
( balloons, pumps, photocell)
Balloons are usually a sign of lightsomeness, unconsciousness and a symbol of childhood, but this multicoloured form is only a colourful mask of happiness. Incertitude and a dense heavy matter hide behind it, contrasting with the original idea of a balloon. The shape emerged from these balloons stuck together is not a smooth inviting form. It gives the idea of a recomposed body, an informal repulsive form, and an unrecognisable body; it is an Antibody. To defend itself, it reacts like an alive being, frightening the other beings entering its space. It inflates itself as much as it can. It reacts like the antibodies present in our body.
Balloons are usually a sign of lightsomeness, unconsciousness and a symbol of childhood, but this multicoloured form is only a colourful mask of happiness. Incertitude and a dense heavy matter hide behind it, contrasting with the original idea of a balloon. The shape emerged from these balloons stuck together is not a smooth inviting form. It gives the idea of a recomposed body, an informal repulsive form, and an unrecognisable body; it is an Antibody. To defend itself, it reacts like an alive being, frightening the other beings entering its space. It inflates itself as much as it can. It reacts like the antibodies present in our body.
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