COLLECTION n°10 at INTERIOR and the collectors

Artists: Nils Alix-Tabeling, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Julie Escoffier, Katsushika Hokusai, Morgan Mandalay, Mélodie Mousset, Pakui Hardware

Exhibition title: COLLECTION n°10

Curated by: Christel Montury, Fabien Villon

Organized by: INTERIOR and the collectors

Venue: INTERIOR and the collectors, Lyon, France

Date: September 18, 2019 – January 4, 2020

Photography: Christel Montury / images copyright and courtesy of the artists and INTERIOR and the collectors

INTERIOR and the collectors, artist-run space based in Lyon, presents from 18 September 2019 to 4 January 2020 a group show entitled COLLECTION n°10 in Resonance with the 15th Lyon Biennale. The exhibition is conceived as an experience based on hypnosis and includes paintings, sculptures, an engraving, a VR work and a site specific installation. The founders Christel Montury and Fabien Villon are also the curators of the exhibition. The showcased artists are :

NILS ALIX-TABELING / ASSUME VIVID ASTRO FOCUS / JULIE ESCOFFIER / KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI / MORGAN MANDALAY / MÉLODIE MOUSSET / PAKUI HARDWARE

Complexity could be one of the characteristics of our current environment. The strata are infinite and the paths are multiple. The space thus organized and felt, whether urban, natural, architectural or virtual, leaves as many exits as dead ends. The question of landscape is emerging as a relationship between man and his surroundings. Plunging the viewer into another arrangement would be another way to be connected beyond what he or she thinks to see.

How to showcase artworks in a way that go so far as to disturb our consciousness? Can we perceive them in a different frame of mind? These questions contributed to the choice to turn the exhibition space into a hypnosis cabinet. The works are presented in a labyrinthine experience, both physical, symbolic and psychological. They refer to a mysterious, contemplative or confusing inhabited space calling to the viewer’s unconscious. The latter will be immersed, if he or she wishes, in a hypnotic trance that has been chosen specifically for its hypersensitive travel effect. So many possibilities to look at the works in a spacetime devoid of any usual reference point and to give way to a more intimate and personal discovery.On this occasion, Interior an the collectors unveils a new exterior space to immerse the viewer into a experience. Curator Christel Montury followed a one year hypnosis training to articulate this project on the principles of Ericksonian hypnosis. She wrote a text specifically for some pieces in a way to induce hypnotic suggestions.

The works have been chosen for their ability to offer to the viewer a trance setting opportunity. Those of Morgan Mandalay, Nils Alix-Tabeling and Hokusai are more conducive to a loss of reference points, blurring the boundaries between the shapes, temporalities or between background and foreground. Assume vivid astro focus (AVAF) features a spectacular rotating device, a tapestry with saturated colors that rotates on itself with speed variations like a turning dervish. Mélodie Mousset has designed « sing a jelly », a new VR artwork that involve the viewer through an interaction with the voice and the breath, carrying himself or herself in a state close to self-hypnosis. The works of Pakui Hardware and Julie Escoffier occupy the space of the inner courtyard in a total immersion with a sound system and hypnotic suggestions. Julie Escoffier has created a labyrinthine in-situ installation that evolves over time according to light and water.

This exhibition strangely resonates with current events, AVAF’s work was realized during the Brazilian elections in a moment of great uncertainty and concern. Morgan Mandalay’s paintings show trees that burn as soon as they bud to bloom. In most of the proposals It’s a question of cycle, flow, paganism resurgences, vibrations, a range of directions that the body doesn’t control but that could deeply echo within consciousness.

Mélodie Mousset, Sing a jelly (2019) VR experience program, oculus quest

Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Entres verdes, rosas e nuvem (2018) 295 x 125 cm x 30 cm, Tapestry, steel, motor, electronic controller

COLLECTION n°10, 2019, exhibition view, curated by Christel Montury, Fabien Villon, organized by INTERIOR and the collectors

Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Entres verdes, rosas e nuvem (2018) 295 x 125 cm x 30 cm, Tapestry, steel, motor, electronic controller

Nils Alix-Tabeling, Le confident des Lunes, Artémis,et son jumeau, Hécate, Séléné (2018) wood, resin, 120 x 80 x 80 cm, 140 x 80 x 80 cm, 160 x 80 x 80 cm

COLLECTION n°10, 2019, exhibition view, curated by Christel Montury, Fabien Villon, organized by INTERIOR and the collectors

Nils Alix-Tabeling, Le confident des Lunes, Artémis,et son jumeau, Hécate, Séléné (2018) wood, resin, 120 x 80 x 80 cm, 140 x 80 x 80 cm, 160 x 80 x 80 cm

Katsushika Hokusai, Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami mountain in Shimotsuke, woodblock print (1833)

COLLECTION n°10, 2019, exhibition view, curated by Christel Montury, Fabien Villon, organized by INTERIOR and the collectors

Morgan Mandalay, Landing ( Spring is sprung and the old growth burns) (2019) oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Morgan Mandalay, Pearl (2019) oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

Morgan Mandalay, Night walk with ghosts and premonitions (2019) oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm

COLLECTION n°10, 2019, exhibition view, curated by Christel Montury, Fabien Villon, organized by INTERIOR and the collectors

Pakui Hardware, Extrakorporal (2019) variable dimensions, glass, latex, silicone

Julie Escoffier, Anima (2019) site specific installation, plaster, light-sensitive solutions, transition metals and derivatives compounds from silver, copper and iron, crystallized potassium alum, copper, steel

COLLECTION n°10, 2019, exhibition view, curated by Christel Montury, Fabien Villon, organized by INTERIOR and the collectors