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Le saint ennui at BQ Berlin

Artists: Ethan Assouline, Guillaume Dénervaud, Garance Früh, Mona Varichon

Exhibition title: Le saint ennui

Curated by: Clément Delépine

Venue: BQ Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Date: June 8 – July 31, 2021

Photography: Roman März, Berlin / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and BQ, Berlin

Le saint ennui was inspired by the central character of Mr. Bougran’s retirement, a novel written in 1888 by the multifaceted French novelist and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans.

Resulting from an open dialogue between four artists whose practices address our normative modes of perception, this exhibition brings together works offering a reflection on the mutability of reality, from a bodily to a societal scale, from a sentimental to a political perspective.

In logic, the principle of non-contradiction states that a proposition and its opposite cannot coexist at the same time, or on the same plane. In theory, reality cannot contradict itself. While this principle cannot be demonstrated, Mr. Bougran seems fully determined to refute it.

Bougran is a middle-aged civil servant who is unfairly forced into early retirement by the administration he served loyally for a number of years. His dismissal comes with the label “psychological infirmity undetectable by men of the medical art”.

Unwilling to accept such dreary fate, and driven by boredom and stubborn habits, Bougran conjures up a desperate plan to recreate an identical version of his old office at home. From his desk, he writes letters and reports which he sends to himself, and to which he responds with official rigour. Nothing is overlooked to maintain the illusion of a work environment. To improve his workflow and keep up the pace, he even goes so far as to hire his former assistant. In this duplicate reality, the retiree in denial developed a performative relationship to the world. Not unlike another retiree in denial who relied on “alternative facts” to bend reality as he pleased.

The recent months have been the scene of various arrangements with reality. Like Bougran, we have manifested a relentlessness in saving appearances. From the early stages of the first confinements, we have developed an urge to retain normal, substituting sensible experiences for online ones. Online love, online family, online cooking, online conversations, online schools with online classes. In the field of arts, it translated in online exhibitions and graduation shows, online viewing rooms, and online art fairs.

More than ever, humankind did not seem to agree on what reality is and what it is made of. For those who advocated for a paradigm shift, this new world looks a lot like the old one.

What platitude and what a downfall! I felt very uncomfortable in these circles without genuine dignity and without propriety, but … but … from there, wanting to leave them … and, sighing, Mr. Bougran returned to his own situation, to himself.

Interestingly, as if torn between two realities, Huysmans wrote an alternative ending to Mr. Bougran’s retirement. In one version, the zealous civil servant dies at work, exhausted, in the other, he lives only to wonder how much time was wasted.

Today, 15 months after the first Covid case was diagnosed, things are now seemingly back to normal in a few, often rich, countries. Nevertheless, the pandemic is still raging in some parts of the world, offering us an auspicious reminder that normal is a concept in flux.

Mona Varichon, “15 avril 2019 Notre-Dame Brûle”, 2020, HD video, color, stereo sound, 07:17mn, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “Your loveliness illuminates our dark little cavern”, 2021, Papier-mâché, acrylic paint, soil, electric system, car light, metalic string, 25 x 20 x 24 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “Your loveliness illuminates our dark little cavern”, 2021, Papier-mâché, acrylic paint, soil, electric system, car light, metalic string, 25 x 20 x 24 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “Would you really like to explore this tunnel?”, 2021, Papier-mâché, acrylic paint, soil,electric system, light, metalic string, 80 x 80 x 20 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Ethan Assouline, “Berlin (Autonomie)”, 2021, Wood, net curtains, paint, plastic, Advil, pearls, 130 x 30 x 25 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Ethan Assouline, “Berlin (Autonomie)”, 2021 (Detail), Wood, net curtains, paint, plastic, Advil, pearls, 130 x 30 x 25 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Ethan Assouline, “Tout seul (2)”, 2021 (Detail), Lamp, drawers, pearls, “recherche du sens de tout (…)“- poem, 105 x 28 x 60 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “The pollution lies in the earth itself”, 2021, Graphite and pigments on paper, acrylic, glass, stainless steel laser cutting and bending, magnets, 60 x 77 x 3 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Garance Früh, “Untitled”, 2021, Leather, lycra, metal hooks, cotton thread, 365 x 350 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Garance Früh, “L’un dans l’autre“, 2021, Metal, fabric, magnets, 130 x 16 x 51 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Installation view, “Le saint ennui”, BQ, Berlin. Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “Wind turbine meets dust and smog”, 2021, Cast pester, divers metallic objects, 50 x 50 x 1 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Ethan Assouline, “Banc”, 2021, Bench, net curtains, paint, metal heart, dog poop bag bag, cord, ceramic, 20 x 15,5 x 133 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

Guillaume Dénervaud, “Wind turbine meets birds and flowers”, 2021, Cast pester, divers metallic object, glass beads, 50 x 50 x 1 cm, BQ, Berlin, Photo Roman März

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