Joana Vasconcelos. Do not be fooled by the “fragile” inscription!
Arlindo Camacho, photo from Joana Vasconcelos’s website.
The first time I saw (or at least noticed) the work of Joana Vasconcelos was at the Venice Biennale in 2005. A gigantic chandelier made of sanitary tampons opened the route of the Arsenale. The work was to frighten the Palace of Versailles seven years later, where the Portuguese filled the royal apartments. It is true that the thing remained unknown at the time of the Sun King! La Sérénissime remains for me linked to the artist. I thus remember his gigantic colored sock cascading in the Palazzo Grassi from the floors to the floor of the courtyard. Then it was, during another Biennial, a boat decorated by the lady, with a boat hull covered with azulejos. The ship was still sailing. For very short cruises, it is true…
A force of nature
Joana does not only work in the monumental. He occasionally wiggles his knitters’ needles for projects the size of a private home. The woman can thus return today to Grand-Rue Genevoise at Laura Gowen, who had already shown her in her former space on rue Calvin. She is friends this time with Ai Weiwei. The gallery owner likes to create duos. The “soft sculptress”, if I dare use such a term in view of her works in wool or other textiles, came to take a short tour this summer in the Old Town in order to inspect the premises. That’s where I saw her. River encounter. Difficult to stem a person so voluble and driven by such a rage to win and convince. It must also be said that the woman appears immense. The Valkyrie, Latin version. She tends to get ever closer to her interlocutor. Me, in this case. It is quickly seen. Every twenty minutes, she pulls her chair a little closer to the side of the one occupied by her listener.
The current showcase of Laura Gowen Contemporary.
Photo from Laura Gowen’s website.
Joana was born in Paris in 1971, but she left for Portugal when she was three years old. “My parents were political refugees. They had fled Salazar, whose dictatorship had chloroformed the country. No more cultural or intellectual life.” The father was a photographer. “He wanted to come back from the carnation revolution. He was hoping for the Great Evening. He was a pure and hard Maoist. His daughter now sees the thing with a certain political perspective. “I went much later to Russia and China. I was terribly disappointed. There was none of the magic that had been described to me. I have seen nothing but poverty in Russia. And China immediately scared me a little,” says Joana in perfect French barely tinged with a hint of a Portuguese accent.
Joana at the Palace of Versailles and 2022 with her pots and pans battery.
DR.
The woman quickly felt an artistic vocation within her. After all, the photo was an introduction. “I never made the decision to create. Things don’t happen that way. A need is gradually being felt. It becomes impossible not to give in to it.” Of course, some things can be learned! “We can study, that’s for sure. But taking classes will never make you creative. You just learn how best to master techniques.” An artist’s life forms for Joana a long path that is traveled. With an omnipresent spirituality. In the speech of the woman, who listens very little to her vis-à-vis, the idea of spirituality (or to be more exact of “positive forces”) will constantly return. Art is for her at the same time physical, intellectual and mental. Three elements that must always be in harmony. “At the start, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I develop some projects by seeing more or less clearly. The goal is to create life and dreams. And then there is the click.”
“I am convinced that the body is an alliance of physical and mental. There is no clear separation between them, even if the physical seems to prevail in Africa and the mental in India.
Joana then returns to her idea of completeness. “I am convinced that the body is an alliance of physical and mental. There is no clear separation between them, even if the physical seems to prevail in Africa and the mental in India. The problem with Europe is that it has changed the mind into intellectuality. Suffice to say that she forgot the body on the way. Intelligence must dominate here, unlike Asia which favors the spiritual side. The visual artist naturally aims to find a balance. “In my approach, there is always a physical structure. Material. I intend to have with objects and the environment a relationship other than cerebral. My luck is that the sculpture is by definition three-dimensional. So there is a dialogue, or if you prefer an interaction between her and me. The thing gives off a form of energy that lasts until the work is finished.” It is then the spectators who take over. They make their own experiences. “They will naturally be different for each of them.”
The giant sock designed for the Palazzo Grassi of the Pinault Foundations.
Pinault Foundation.
Should we therefore accumulate colossal achievements, such as the kind of spaceship that filled the stairwell of the Bon Marché in Paris in 2019? Not necessarily. “I have as much fun with the small size as with the large one. After all, I started out making jewelry!” With the monumental, Joana composes with the structures encountered. “Architects give me a specific space. This becomes my playground. I will decide how I will live there. Shapes. The subjects. The size. The only thing I’m sure of when I start is that I won’t deliver a simple decoration. I don’t make accessories. The thing can take on astonishing dimensions. The Portuguese has taken over a place in Denmark with a creation fifty meters long. Better than Niki de Saint Phalle! “It was a real transformation. Should it therefore become permanent? The sponsors proceeded to a vote. Yes! The work therefore remained in place, like a public commission. But I have nothing against the ephemeral. On the contrary…”
The boat covered in ceramic tiles for a Venice Biennale.
Website of Joana Vasconcelos.
Boat issue. It’s needed. After all, in an interview, it’s the answers that count. Does Joana’s work have a feminist dimension for her, with her diversion from traditional textile materials? Yes and no. “I am a feminist insofar as I am an activist for human rights. Everyone has the right, as the French motto wants, to freedom, equality and fraternity. Three words which in my opinion should blend into the overall concept of humanism.” However, the Portuguese artist is just as concerned about the current loss of individuality in a universe that has become global. “A world of clicks detached from any context”. A loss of creativity and know-how.
The large installation for the Parisian store Le Bon Marché.
LVMH.
In this regard, it remains very clear that Joana does not work alone in care corner. She runs a kind of large workshop, with many collaborators and especially female collaborators. “At the moment, I occupy fifty-four people. These are not just any. I choose them very carefully. A current must pass between us. Some practices can be learned. I therefore choose someone above all for the personality they give off. This goes for all aspects of my business. This will therefore be the case with the electricians that I will soon have to hire.” It is also necessary that the person integrates into the group. His way of thinking and working. To what becomes its collective personality. Not to mention of course the contact, even distant, with Joana. In my opinion, the latter must know very well what she wants! And especially what she doesn’t want…
Practice
“Melting-Pot, Ai Weiwei and Joana Vasconcelos”, Gowen Contemporary, 23, Grand-Rue, Geneva, until November 6. Such. 022 700 30 68, website www.gowencontemporary.com Open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Stéphane Brunner at Patrick Cramer.
Photo taken from Patrick Cramer’s website.
What to see in parallel in Geneva in the Quartier des Bains?
Is it because they are shortening right now? Still, the days go by. You therefore only have a few days left to see three exhibitions discovered in Geneva’s Quartier des Bains. I should have told you before, but that’s the way it is.
Vik Muniz at Xippas
Xippas presents new compositions by Vik Muniz in its annex on rue du Vieux-Billard. Accustomed to the house, the Brazilian this time started from often famous cubist paintings, due to Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque or Juan Gris. They are seen as always redone from cut-outs glued to a background. This time there is a kind of relief as a bonus. We do not know if this is great art or DIY, but we must salute the performance, undoubtedly made possible by the work of an entire team (until October 29, www.xippas.com).
Panamarenko at Wilde
Died in 2019 at the age of 79, the Antwerp resident Panamarenko had a lot of talk about him in the 1970s and 1980s. This crazy aeronautics artist built his planes, which were found not in airports but in Kunsthallen. Wilde offers an almost museum-like retrospective of it on rue du Vieux-Billard. There are essential pieces there, which are for sale. They range from a helicopter to a machine with a huge propeller. Attention, this rare artist has a considerable commercial value! (until October 27, www.wildegallery.ch)
Stephane Brunner at Patrick Cramer
Still in the rue du Vieux-Billard, Patrick Cramer offers works on paper by Valaisan Stéphane Brunner, who lives in Geneva after having worked in Berlin (1985-1989) then in Brussels (1989-1994). Now in his seventies, the man now shows his “Miscellaneous facts”. Nothing figurative though. If the works treated with Indian ink, watercolor and gouache now include a little color, they remain as abstract as in 2000, when Brunner was exhibited at Mamco (until October 29, www.cramer.ch)
When Vik Muniz takes over the cubists.
Photo taken from the Xippas website.
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Exhibition in Geneva – Joana Vasconcelos finds herself at Laura Gowen
– Joana Vasconcelos finds herself at Laura Gowen’s
The Portuguese knows what she wants. She told me about her work with her team of knitters. For her, it’s all about positive vibes…