Creative Beginnings. Professional End. at Villa Vassilieff

Artists: Kerry Downey, Joanna Seitz, Lou Masduraud, Lorenza Longhi, Maria Toumazou

Exhibition title: Creative Beginnings. Professional End.

Curated by: Julia Gardener

Venue: Villa Vassilieff, Pernod Ricard Fellowship, Paris, France

Date: January 17 – April 18, 2020

Photography: All photographs copyright and courtesy the artist and Villa Vassilieff, Pernod Ricard Fellowship, Paris

Note: Exhibition booklet is available here

Villa Vassilieff hosts a group exhibition centred around the Tour Maine-Montparnasse as an emblem of ‘site’. Tour Maine-Montparnasse is located just 750 meters away from Villa Vassilieff. The 1970s skyscraper – the first and, for a long-time after, the only one in Paris – remains universally and passionately detested in the city. The joke goes that the towering office block has the best views because you can’t see the tower itself. Positioned in the neighbourhood the building’s towering presence stands for the effects of gentrification, modernization, and globalization on space. This exhibition investigates the threatened specificity of local sites as opposed to universalizing structures, bringing together art practices that center practical, mass produced, and patented objects within interrogated commercial spaces.

Exhibition view, Creative Beginnings. Professional End., Villa Vassilieff, 2020, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Maria Toumazou, Deserted flower-shaped water fountain (Part of), 2019, Plastic bags sheet stretched on board, shopping bags from the Cyprus Handicraft Centre, white spirit, mdf, Courtesy Maria Toumazou, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Maria Toumazou, Glasses Necklace edition for Xmas Party (Haegue Yang class fundraising event “Night Shift”), 2018, Glasses, metal, wood, Courtesy Maria Toumazou, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Lou Masduraud, Cabinet de contorsion (examen d’après le Bureau des Pleurs), 2020, Industrial administrative furniture, shirt, cotton thread, archives from Villa Vassilieff, plastiline, wood, Courtesy Lou Masduraud, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Exhibition view, Creative Beginnings. Professional End., Villa Vassilieff, 2020, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Lorenza Longhi, Untitled (hesitation), 2020, Silkscreen on paper and adhesive whiteboard mounted on wood, aluminum, screws, Courtesy Lorenza Longhi & FANTA-MLN, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Maria Toumazou, Supermarket, Touche Éclat, 10 cy cents, 2018, Coin, Touche Éclat, copper sheet, solder, plastic bags sheet stretched on board, Courtesy Maria Toumazou, Photo : Aurélien Mole

Maria Toumazou, Agrotis (small), 2018, Tile spacer, copper sheet, solder, letter opener, plastic bags sheet stretched on board, Courtesy Maria Toumazou, (detail) Photo : Aurélien Mole