Artists: James Bantone, Pierrette Bloch, Mario Botta, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, Lisa Biedlingmaier, Gregory Bourrilly, Sarah Burger, Denise Emery, Sylvie Fleury, Gina Folly,
Cee Füllemann, Vidya Gastaldon, Nicola Genovese, Maëlle Gross, Roman Gysin, Katharina Hohmann, Inner Light, Sophie Jung, Marjorie Kapelusz, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Deirdre O’Leary, Céline Manz, Léa Katharina Meier, Julie Monot, Sandrine Pelletier, Mai-Thu Perret, Andrea Cindy Raemy, Sabrina Röthlisberger, Ugo Rondinone, Denis Savary, Roman Signer, Marco Simao, Mina Squalli-Houssaïni, Tobias Spichtig, Manon Wertenbroek
Exhibition title: STITCHES: Scènes, corps, décors
Curated by: Gabrielle Boder, Tadeo Kohan, Camille Regli
Venue: Le Commun, Geneva, Switzerland
Date: June 17 – July 11, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Le Commun, Geneva
If the integration of textile into the history of 20th century art constituted a major factor in the reversal of the so-called “dominant categories” – whether it be the upheaval of artistic and aesthetic hierarchies, feminist emancipation or Western decentering – what is the situation today?
Stemming from the knot as a symbol of connectivity and constraint, but also the elementary pattern of fabric, the group exhibition Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors looks at the use of this ductile technique in the Swiss artistic scene in recent decades. Questioning the appeal of textile in contemporary practices and its subversive power, the exhibition explores the intimate relationships that the material holds with the body and its spaces of representation.
35 emerging and established artists and collectives are invited to dialogue around the notions of decor, stage, roles, and the representation of the self. Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors examines the ambivalent relationship between textiles and art through the prism of intertwined and complementary axes.
Associated with the decorative and furniture setting, textile is embedded in the domestic, in everyday use. The private invites itself into the exhibition, contextualising the home as a space of comfort, shelter or confinement. Composed of object-works (beds, carpets, tables, decorations, windows), the collective and disparate “furnishings” of the space disturbs the principle of intimacy inherent to the domestic sphere, and questions shared environments and identities. Occupying the walls, floor and ceiling, the works interact with the architecture, drifting away from their functionality as objects. They also allude to a set of historical references tied to the breakdown of notions such as the decorative, craft and design.
When the home becomes the stage, garments become the costumes, objects the props, and decors a set. Curtains open and the space for public representation awakes, bringing with it fiction and storytelling. By embodying and diverting stage codes, the works explore the staging of the self and its relationship to theatricality and performativity. A tension arises from the expectation of an activation or its traces. Open sets are laid bare, without backstage, beginning nor end, and textile appears as a revealing element, triggering mobility and metamorphosis.
The exhibition is also built around a multiplicity of tri and bidimensional bodies or “personae” – a Latin term used to define ancient theatre’s masks, often associated with archetypes and their role in society. Bodies and visitors hence meet in a collective narrative, mingling between presence and absence, mythical and familiar figures, portraits and self-portraits. A crowd of anthropomorphic, mutant, abstract, flawed and glitched beings unfolds and summons up a frontal relationship to visitors. Fabric composes and conceals these bodies; it assembles and separates them.
By contrast and affinity, the works form ties and creates a temporary joint community – an interlace that nourishes a formal, tactile, and narrative dialogue between abstraction and figuration, ready-made and know-how, stages, bodies, and decors. The artists meet in a nodal setting linking intimacy and extimacy, constraint and liberation, emancipation and domestication. From suture stitch to sewing stitch, carnal and woven materials respond to each other, navigating through the private, scenic, and social spheres.
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Thomas Liu Le Lann, Maëlle Gross, Sabrina Röthlisberger. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Thomas Liu Le Lann (sculpture), Maëlle Gross (wallpaper). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Tobias Spichtig (3 pieces). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Sylvie Fleury, Vidya Gastaldon (upward), Andrea Cindy Raemy, Manon Wertenbroek, Nicola Genovese, Mai-Thu Perret (forward). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Manon Wertenbroek, Cee Füllemann. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Nicola Genovese, Manon Wertenbroek. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Marco Simao, Inner Light, Mina Squalli-Houssaïni. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Sophie Jung (installation). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. James Bantone (sculpture). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Ugo Rondinone, Pierrette Bloch, Mai-Thu Perret. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Gina Folly, Katharina Hohmann (table), Roman Gysin, Sophie Jung. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Left to right: Deirdre O’Leary, Mario Botta, Denis Savary. Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
Installation view Stitches: Scènes, corps, décors, Le Commun, Geneva, 2021. Céline Manz (installation). Photo: © Nicolas Delaroche Studio
