Artists: Justin Fitzpatrick, Birke Gorm, Daniele Milvio, Sveta Mordovskaya, Marianna Simnett
Exhibition title: Our Vampires
Curated by: Attilia Fattori Franchini
Venue: SPERLING, Munich, Germany
Date: November 6, 2021 – January 29, 2022
Photography: ©the artists. Courtesy of SPERLING, Munich. Photos by Sebastian Kissel
Vampires are night types, they cherish solitude and emo outfits. Music can vary but they listen to any genre containing the devil’s triathlon in it. There is no such creature as “The Vampire”, there are only vampires. Vampires dissipate trends and overcome the 9–5 paradigm. They question what it means to be normal and transcend the rigid structures of gender and identity, celebrating constant change and transformation. They are the Madonnas and David Bowies of narrative. Vampires blend into the changing cultures they inhabit. They are invaders of the normal and can be everything that we are whilst at the same time they are fearful reminders of the things that we are not. They embody seditious urbanity rather than dangerous intimacy. Beloved by the left, dread by moral witch hunters, they open a space of possibility.
Taking its title from Nina Auerbach’s famous book Our Vampires, Ourselves (1995), historically exploring and demystifying the figure of the vampire as an archetype embodying rhetorics and fear of otherness, the exhibition loosely embraces Auerbach’s desire to revalue the vampire as a symbol of constant change and transformation exiting any fixed category of existence.
To emulate a vampire is to be a spectator disappearing into a spectator: we listen, talk, watch, without touching or becoming. Because they glide on the margins of activity… writes Auerbach.
The exhibition Our Vampires, focuses on artistic positions interested in subverting conventional structures, favoring alternative forms of knowledge, playing with economies of visibility and opacity whilst negotiating questions of identity and self-representation.
-Attilia Fattori Franchini
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Daniele Milvio, LM in AG, 2021, clay (synthetic), wood, gauze, gesso, wax, metal, polyester resin, aniline, indian ink and watercolour on paper, 24 × 17 × 5 cm, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Federico Vavassori, Milan
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Birke Gorm, IOU, 2021, wood, 63 × 10 × 7 cm, Courtesy the artist and Croy Nielsen, Vienna
Birke Gorm, IOU [detail], 2021, wood, 63 × 10 × 7 cm, Courtesy the artist and Croy Nielsen, Vienna
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Sveta Mordovskaya, Untitled (clowns), 2018, coffee cream lids, dimensions variable, Courtesy the artist and Weiss Falk, Basel
Sveta Mordovskaya, Untitled (clowns) [detail], 2018, coffee cream lids, dimensions variable, Courtesy the artist and Weiss Falk, Basel
Sveta Mordovskaya, Untitled (clowns) [detail], 2018, coffee cream lids, dimensions variable, Courtesy the artist and Weiss Falk, Basel
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Justin Fitzpatrick, A Whisper in the Cloister, 2019, oil on canvas, 73 × 113 cm, Courtesy the artist and Sultana Gallery, Paris
Sveta Mordovskaya, This melting eye, I want you to realise that it’s another trap! (I), 2019, ceramic (unglazed), 32 × 39 × 4 cm, Courtesy the artist and Weiss Falk, Basel
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Marianna Simnett, Tito’s Dog, 2020, HD digital video, sound 6min, 56 sec, Courtesy the artist and Société, Berlin
Birke Gorm, IOU, 2021, wood, 41 × 8 × 7 cm, Courtesy the artist and Croy Nielsen, Vienna
Birke Gorm, IOU [detail], 2021, wood, 41 × 8 × 7 cm, Courtesy the artist and Croy Nielsen, Vienna
Sveta Mordovskaya, Cocoon, 2021, gift foils, dimensions variable, Courtesy the artist and Weiss Falk, Basel
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Justin Fitzpatrick, Seeds of Urizen (Frieze!), 2019, oil on canvas, 73 × 183 cm, Courtesy the artist and Sultana Gallery, Paris
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
Daniele Milvio, Visser, 2021, clay (synthetic), wood, gauze, gesso, wax, metal, polyester resin, aniline, indian ink and watercolour on paper, 24 × 17 × 5 cm, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Federico Vavassori, Milan
Our Vampires, curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, 2021, installation view
