toast at A.ROMY – Art Viewer

Artists: Lauren Coullard, Maya Hottarek, Christelle Kahla, Lou Masduraud, Julie Monot, Mathias Pfund, Jessy Razafimandimby, Zoé de Soumagnat

Exhibition title: toast

Venue: A.ROMY, Zurich, Switzerland

Date: March 10 – April 29, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and A.ROMY, Zurich

A party (birthday party, or dinner party, or any kind of party) – like a group show – is never a full comprehensive, realist and coherent story. It encompasses disjointed details that allow to comprehend the events (or works) not as a whole exhaustive and logic entity, but as a sequence of organic and hybrid particules or even scraps. As a viewer (or a guest), we could then systematically arrest our attention by the detail that seems out of place, the contradiction that tears open, the monstrous element that reveals flaws and disparities, offer never-ending probabilities for the understanding and would perhaps «de-discipline our eyes»to create alternative narratives (1).

Confettis rain on Tramstrasse. After a quick look into the mirror to fix one’s hair or lipstick (Zoé de Soumagnat, There III, 2021), we are immediately embraced by the one impatiently dancing with hands (Maya Hottarek, Suck my dick & Suck my dick 2, 2022), all over the place, can’t wait to move the hips. Already installed at the table, someone is sharing a romantic story, the story of a teenage love, of casting names in the freshly made concrete floor (Mathias Pfund, Mathias & Ella (10th Anniversary Remaster Edition), 2020). In a dark corner, two guests are hiding (Christelle Kahla, Cold heart, 2023 & Lou Masduraud, Belt (Alicia), 2021), harness and belt, dark colors, no light. To their left, fluffy, friendly, soft, the one who cares, listens, hugs, conforts (Julie Monot, Armoramor, 2021). Obviously, the dogs sit next to the friendly one. No party – or joy of any kind – without dogs (Jessy Razafimandimby, L’amour simple pour l’ennui simple, 2023). At the head of the table, the toastmaker chairs A.ROMY’s banquet (Lauren Coullard, Bleary Eyed, 2020), responsible to lead the on-going dinner liturgy. Toastmaker rises to toast.

Toast is a feast. A celebration. It’s a memory that remains when the drink is over. Toast implies tinkering glasses in order to scare away any spirits or ghosts that would hang out around. Toast is the celebration of the gallery third anniversary. Toast is the memory of a celebrated domesticity, a cheer to the artist’s visions and trust, a cheer to colleagues, supports and community. A.ROMY’s banquet is not a linear intention or a straight objective but a sequence of details which narrates a living experience, an addition of gestures which results in an affectionate and de-disciplined ragout. A toast to friendship.

Alexandra Romy

¹ all paragraph Mieke Bal, De-Disciplining the Eye., Critical Inquiry 16, no. 3 (1990): 506–31; Mieke Bal, “Figuration.”, PaMLA 119, no. 5 (2004): 1289–92.