NETTIE HORN | Once upon a time there were two knights

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REPRESENTED ARTISTS	BERTILLE BAK	GWENAEL BELANGER	DEXTER DYMOKE	ANTTI LAITINEN
	MARKO MAETAMM	YUDI NOOR	OLIVER PIETSCH	KIM RUGG
	BETTINA SAMSON	SINTA WERNER

"Once upon a time there were two knights"

Julie Béna, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Hippolyte Hentgen, Invernomuto.

Curated by Barbara Sirieix

15 FEBRUARY - 24 MARCH

VIEW WORKS

The exhibition brings together works that relate to mythologies within a frame of expanded practices. From Ancient and Modern references, the artists reshape new figures of fascination and wonder as storytellers – jigsaw knights, the Venus of W, The Mermaid-monkey or the mysterious B.O.B… They lean towards performativity within composite media displays – film, sculpture, tapestry, photographs – challenging the cinema apparatus as well as experimenting with media synthesis and collages of disparate fragments of vision.

Narrativity seems to be generalized as normative to define the ordinary human experience and used as a weapon of mass distraction. In the context of the "narrative” where marketing agencies and political strategists worship the power of the individual story, the artists formulate their narratives through a kaleidoscopic approach of idiosyncrasy to figure ways to reconsider fantasy. They often work with four hands therefore challenging the potential of originality and their projects expand beyond the exhibition space with trailers, costumes, accessories, drawings or texts as tactics to dismantle linearity.

Julie Béna works with objects, video, drawing and photography and predominantly produces in-situ installations. Her work considers the relationship between display and textuality - how a simple layout of elements with a title can unravel complex narrative streams. The artist relates this duality with the universe of theatre. As on a stage set, she develops ambiances and visual universes with symbolic objects interacting as an assemblage of Meta-stories.

Invernomuto's projects evolve within various researches on local stories and myths in popular and underground culture. Their work explores the frontiers between fiction and fantasy, a sort of impenetrable zone, “thick like glue”, with video works, sculptures often involving performances with music. In the B.O.B. project, taken from the mainstream series “The Dukes of Hazzard” as well as other references, they created a fiction involving three characters, one imaginay (B.O.B.), one fictional (Uncle Jesse) and one real (Glen Danzig). We will only see the trailers with a voice-over by a storyteller, playing with the ordinary expectation of a cinematic plot.

Pauline Curnier Jardin presents a subversive approach to the representation of the feminine revelation in Grotta Profunda, inspired by the life of Saint Bernadette Soubirou. Bernadette sees and hears the Invisible which encourages her to look for the Truth about the origins of Humanity inside a cave, instead of taking its apparition as a response. There, mythological figures appear from a revised occidental cosmogony in front of the “wide open eye” of Bernadette. Pauline defines herself as a teller of tales. She mostly works with live arts, film, drawing and music through assemblage and collage processes.

Hippolyte Hentgen plays with drawing, blending miscellaneous references from comic books to modern art and experiencing different types of materials. They work with four hands on each drawing in order to make it impossible to decipher the style of one or the other. As they consider the practice of drawing today to be dependent on the reproduction of pre-existing styles, they withdraw from the idea of idiosyncrasy to instead explore a performative approach to the practice as a duo, who also work with sculptures, tapestries and stage creations.

image: Pauline Curnier Jardin, Grotta Profunda (the moody chasm), 2011

For inquiries regarding availability of works and prices, or additional information about the artist, please contact the gallery

Installation view, Once upon a time there were two knights, NETTIE HORN