↳ Exhibitions

Giulia Essyad at Cherish

March 2, 2020

Artist: Giulia Essyad

Exhibition title: Chocolate Factory

Venue: Cherish, Petit-Lancy, Geneva,Switzerland

Date: January 26 – March 1, 2020

Photography: James Bantone, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Cherish, Petit-Lancy

I chewed and changed for the bluest.
– Giulia as Violet Beauregarde
Leave my body [planet] or die in it.
– Giulia as a Na’vi proverb

often in meeting those so unaffected, larger
yet in size we were not easy
to fool, speaking in riddles unbeknownst we
should have known better, tart nothings
i write this in worry on backs of boxes wrapping
tin deflections caught in the wind
it comes in waves
the shipping docks
sites of insurrection, i digress, where
will we find ourselves
at the wits end of all things
we knew and needed, were we not
fed, scrunched down, factory town,
only with such shed can we even begin but ponder,
what is a mercy in such caste,
blinded sepulcher marry me not
to the night so artificial, we could have sworn,
a case terminal, well one day we will, goddess willing, leave this place
– Cherish

Giulia Essyad is an artist, sculptor, poet, performer, born in Switzerland in 1992. Interested by the power of representation, she experiments with sculpture (ceramics, 3D printing, natural and industrial materials), video and writing, as well as with her own body during performances, live or recorded. Her artistic work has taken her into research and practices that belong to the Bodypositive movement. As a digital native born in a female body, Essyad’s practice concerns the representation of bodies, online and IRL, and engages with the varied forms of alienation that come with the consumption and production of body images.

Essyad’s work has been shown numerous times in group as well as solo exhibitions and she published several books including «Birthday» (Oraibi/Beckbooks) and «Poetry Archive» (Quark). In 2019 she launched “TOUCHING MYSELF”, a body-centered ceramic workshop at Théâtre de l’Usine, Geneva. She will present a new video commissioned by the Centre d’Art Contemporain for the Moving Image Biennale 2020 in Geneva as well as a new body of work at LOKAL-INT in Biel, Switzerland. With the support of Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art and FPLCE.