Mélodie Mousset at Ex-MOI Arcades

Artist: Mélodie Mousset

Exhibition title: HanaHana Full Bloom

Curated by: Treti Galaxie

Venue: Ex-MOI Arcades, Turin, Italy

Date: October 25 – November 15, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Treti Galaxie

Treti Galaxie, in collaboration with Dear Onlus, is proud to present the first solo show in Italy of the French artist Mélodie Mousset (*1981 Abu Dhabi, lives and works in Zurich).

Interested in the body as a vehicle of physical and ritual interactions, Mousset investigates the conditions that lead to the formulation of identity within the context of biotechnology and new media through immersive installations in which virtual reality and material reality co-exist, making it hard to define the dividing line between what lies inside and outside the body of the user.

Since 2016, the artist has developed HanaHana, a representation of her bodily unconscious as a virtual reality environment: spectators thus find themselves in a laboratory-world, made up largely of sand, coloured water and mysterious stone structures, in which they may construct endless dizzying architectural structures made up of hands: the primary and most ancient tool of humanity.

The project consists of a new version of HanaHana, developed by the artist together with the kids patients of the ward of Paediatric Onco-Hematology of the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin, as part of Robo&Bobo by DEAR Onlus, a charity association dealing with the humanisation of hospital environments.

The multidisciplinary team of DEAR, made up of professionals active in the field of art and design, pedagogy, psychology and anthropology, came up with and carried out a series of workshops through which the kids established a dialogue with the work and research of Mélodie Mousset, becoming her assistants throughout the project and actively contributing to the creation of the new work, which may be experienced in the show through the use of Acer Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The aim of the experimental project is to provide these hospitalised kids with a unique training experience, while also contributing to breaking down physical barriers between the inside and the outside of the hospital.

The work is presented in the zone of the Ex-MOI, which with its hypnotic repetition of chained arches and its history of exchanges and mutations serves as an ideal introduction to the work, as well as a gateway for the passage between the real and the virtual.

Mélodie Mousset studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (EBAR), France; Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL), Switzerland; Royal College of Arts, London, and completed her Masters of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts CALARTS in Valencia, California.

Her work has been displayed in institutions and galleries throughout the world, including the MOCA (Museum Of Contemporary Arts), Los Angeles; KunstMuseum Stuttgart; MAC (Musée d’Art Contemporain), Lione; The Metropolitan Art Society, Beirut; Susanne Vielmetter Project, Los Angeles; WestBund Museum, Shanghai; HeK, Basel and SALTS, Basel.

Robo&Bobo is a new and innovative teaching-workshop path designed to bring new technologies together with the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) disciplines among adolescent and preadolescent children (11–18 years of age) in the ward of Paediatric Onco-Ematology of the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin.

The project has been made possible thanks to the support of Compagnia di San Paolo (Main supporter), Fondazione Alta Mane Italia and Fondation Alta Mane Genève, with technical sponsorship from Acer, Parcolimpico (for the availability of spaces), DuParc Contemporary Suites, DuParc Oriental SPA, Sardex in Piedmont, Piemex and Lo Spaccio Alimentare.

Mélodie Mousset, HanaHana Full Bloom, 2018, installation view, Ex-MOI Arcades, Torino, courtesy of Dear Onlus and Treti Galaxie. Photo: Marco Cappelletti and Delfino Sisto Legna

HanaHana Full Bloom, 2018, documentation of the workshops in the Regina Margherita Hospital, Torino, courtesy of Dear Onlus and Treti Galaxie. Photo: Marco Cappelletti and Delfino Sisto Legnani

Mélodie Mousset, HanaHana Full Bloom, 2018, screenshot from VR experience, Torino, courtesy of the artist and Treti Galaxie