ART-PRESENTATION: Another Banana Day For The Dream-fish, Part I
J. D. Salinger’s short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” originally published in the 31/1/1948, issue of The New Yorker. Bananafish, the imaginary creatures that gorge themselves on bananas and then die of banana fever, represent Seymour Glass (one character of the story) and his struggles to reengage with society after returning from the war. We present you the exhibition “Another banana day for the dream-fish” at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in two parts (Part II).
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Palais de Tokyo Archive
How are the sense of wonder, the capacity to invent worlds, but also childhood fears and anxieties, constructed and become determined, in different contexts? The exhibition “Another banana day for the dream-fish” after the modified title of J.D. Salinger’s story, tries to provide an answer by making us travel from everyday, intimate territories to fantasy worlds, through a series of fragments of an identity in permanent construction. Like a tale in its principle and construction, with multiple levels of interpretation, addressed at once to children and adults, with its numerous rites of passage, the exhibition invites visitors, of all ages to cross through a variety of initiatory trials, while confronting themselves with the strange and the stranger. Far from being a watered-down vision of childhood, the works in the exhibition explore at once fantasy, ingenuity, a feeling for play, apprenticeship and the marvellous, but also the dark and sometimes cruel or perverse side of childhood, ranging from feelings of abandon and boredom, to the capacity for terror, anger and fear that can sometimes drive it. Among the works is on presentation “Vocabulary of solitude” by Ugo Rondinone, an installation of 45 life-size clown figures cast from 22 men and 23 women of various ages and ethnicities. The work takes inspiration from the artist’s reflection on his daily actions, where each figure is engaged in a different quotidian activity, such as sleeping, dreaming, remembering, showering and walking. Petrit Halilaj presents his series of works “ABETARE”, the title stems of the artist’s alphabet book, where each letter of the alphabet is associated with a drawing and a corresponding word. Like all the children of his generation, Halilaj learned Albanian language on it, while attending primary school in the Kosovar village of Runik. At the time the oppression of the ethnic Albanian population of. The book became an essential part of their cultural identity and each generation would pass it on to the next one. In Halilaj’s work a one-to-one reproduction of the book is playfully exposed page after page as a wallpaper, recalling the familiar process of learning, whereby, beside the alphabet, the foundations of society are taught through the representation of scenes from everyday life. Also on presentation is a large-scale site-specifi installation composed of 12 school desks and several steel sculptures. The school tables come his Primary School “Shotë Galica”. The green surface of the desks and the wooden benches were covered with thousands of drawings, inscriptions, carvings and scribbles left by several generations of school kids. The artist then used thin steel rods to reproduce greatly enlarged versions of doodles and drawings once left behind by pupils on the seats and desks of the classrooms. In spite of their clearly sculptural form, the objects still preserve a graphic character and develop an effect suggesting delicate drawings in space. The depicted motifs include houses, hearts, birds, flowers, cars, aeroplanes, rockets and rifles, and they are simultaneously witness to the hopes, yearnings and dreams and to the doubts, fears and worries of the children and adolescents of that time.
Participating Artists: Caroline Achaintre, Amabouz Taturo, Jean-Marie Appriou, David Douard, Dran, Escif, Philippe Grandrieux, Daiga Grantina, Petrit Halilaj, Anna Hulačová , Binelde Hyrcan, Takashi Kuribayashi, Sharon Lockhart, Keita Miyazaki, Yuko Mohri, Anita Molinero, Jonathan Monaghan, Chihiro Mori, Ugo Rondinone, Megan Rooney, Rachel Rose, Kiki Smith, Tomoaki Suzuki, Sabrina Vitali, Yûichi Yokoyama and Andy Warhol. Craftpersons: Enrique López & Germain Benoît, Karen Grigorian, Aurélie Lanoiselée, ARCA – Steven Leprizé, Ghislain Moret de Rocheprise , Ateliers Loire-Chartres, Mathieu Rousso and Sika Viagbo.
Info: Curators: Curators: Sandra Adam-Couralet and Yoann Gourmel, Associated Curator: Kodama Kanazawa, Dramaturge: Clément Cogitore, Scenographer: Laure Pichat, Palais de Tokyo, 13 avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, Duration: 22/6-9/9/18, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun: 12:00-24:00, www.palaisdetokyo.com
