This is a story of kinship, womanhood, empowerment and all the adjectives describing contemporary female relationships. You might hear this words often but if we continue to use them it’s because they describe so well the unique bond between the five young women.

 

It all began in Paris but blossomed in Lake Como… when five female artists from different nationalities met at the Bikini residency. Léa Dumayet from France, Katya Ev from Russia, Mara Fortunatovic from France, Lulù Nuti French Italian and Joana Zimmermann from Brazil, all combined in a new meeting point: the Galerie Chloé Salgado. In order to create, artists need to nourish their practice through research, but one must not forget that exchange with their peers and an appropriate   environment are as crucial as the former. Point Zéro was thus a group show marking a pivotal moment, a meeting point in which the artists were confronted to otherness and constructed together a space embodying their inner commitments.

Joana Zimmermann, Still Point, bois de palette, tasseaux, couvertures de survie et cadre en métal, 2019 © GALERIE CHLOE SALGADO

 

At the entrance the spectator was greeted by wooden batten palettes marking the entrance to a new realm. Still Point by Joana Zimmermann is rooted in architecture and relational aesthetics, the piece presented at the exhibition was both a fragment of a greater project and a whole in itself. The initiative made possible by the conjoint efforts of the association Quatorze, volunteers and the artist, aimed at conserving what is known as “mur de pêches” – plots established as far as the 18th century in Montreuil – as well as constructing new spaces for the families living in the slums of the district. Zimmermann installed her piece Lieu Polysémique which first served as the floor of a runaway show, to later transform it into a useful footbridge helping the inhabitants to take out their garbage. Traveling from one place to another, this displacement serves as a metaphor of refugee’s condition, wandering until they finally find a place to settle. Some of the palettes were wrapped with emergency blankets which referred to immigrants.

On the other hand, Léa Dumayet’s artistic practice revolves around materials and how the latter comes to life. Un Soir, a minimalist sculpture made of stainless steel shows the material’s inherent strength while also highlighting its capacity to bend and by extension its vulnerability. Seemingly the goal is to see with new eyes common objects, weight their importance in our lives; every material, every structure has a purpose and we should think more about the organisation of space and its elements. In this respect, Zimmermann’s work and Dumayet sculptures share the same vision as both artistic practices interact with architecture. Mara Fortunatovic is as well interested in architecture but her work explores more specifically the white cube space. The white stands as a reference within a reference to a hermetic world where the shades of the colour white pass unnoticed. Forma Materia – a dissonant composition – invites the spectator to come closer to take a better look to the canvases while he imbues in the white cube space.  

 

Léa Dumayet, Un soir (detail), acier inoxidable, 60x285x21 cm, 2019 © GALERIE CHLOE SALGADO

 

Katya Ev too investigates art’s environment but at a larger scale. Les plus objets des objets is a performance putting under the spotlight the arbitrary guidelines given to guards in museums. Our behaviour is dictated by a tacit protocol that is never questioned, guards have an authority that is never questioned in museums or galleries, spectators follow this rules without questioning their absurdity. The directive was written instead of being performed so you had to read to understand the meaning of the work. Conversely, Lulù Nuti’s work Simul et Singulis is easy to spot as it is embedded in the gallery’s wall. The sculpture made of bronze looks exactly like a parcell of a bee hive, it echoes climate change’s devastating effect on insects and bees, it is a reminder of the fragility assembling our world.  

Point Zéro can be seen as a huge synapse enabling neurons to connect between each other. Subjects differ from another, but in this burgeoning sea of ideas, shapes and colours camaraderie ties together the pieces of the puzzle.

Lulù Nuti, Simul et Singulis,  bronze, 37x25x3 cm, 2019 © GALERIE CHLOE SALGADO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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