Lili Reynaud-Dewar (born in La Rochelle, France 1975 / lives in Paris and Grenoble) opens Museion’s 2017 exhibition programme. One distinctive artist on the contemporary scene, Reynaud-Dewar’s complex oeuvre references the liberation movements and subcultures of the twentieth century, exploring the notion of cultural, social and emotive identity.
The Bolzano exhibition is the artist’s first solo show in Italy; in 2014, at the invitation of guest curator Pier Bal Blanc, for Museion she produced the video “Live Through That?!”, which featured her dancing naked through the empty museum.
Teeth, Gums, Machines, Future, Society is presented in the spacious area on the fourth floor of Museion. Amidst science-fiction and rap music, imposing layouts and disorder, the exhibition comes across as one large installation comprising a range of different elements such as video, film, panels and objects. Everything revolves around two interconnected themes. On one hand, the so-called grills, teeth decorations that are a status symbol in rap and hip hop culture, that the artist provocatively appropriates. The fact of using grills to modify part of the anatomy in turn recalls another key element of the show, the essay A Cyborg Manifesto by the feminist Donna Haraway.
Published in 1985, the essay calls for a move beyond a binary mindset based on dichotomies such as nature/culture, man/woman, right/wrong, truth/illusion and self/other, envisioning a future without discrimination. The other works on display include a new video created in Bolzano for the exhibition.
The starting point and core of the show is the eponymous film TEETH, GUMS, MACHINES, FUTURE, SOCIETY (2016), shown on a large screen. White cushions scattered on a black carpet give visitors somewhere to sit and watch the film, which shows the preparation and staging of a performance in Memphis, Tennessee.
Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Teeth, Gums, Machines, Future, Society
January 28 to May 7, 2017
The exhibition will be accompanied by an artist’s book.
Museion, Piazza Piero Siena 1
I – 39100 Bolzano
Italy
