ART-PRESENTATION: Antibodies

The worldwide experience of lockdown and the adoption of social and physical distancing have made us reconsider the idea that our bodies are sealed units. Did we forget how porous we actually are? The exhibition “Antibodies” platforms the voices of 20 artists that with recent and new works they take the pulse of our ability to bond together and help us rethink how we inhabit the world.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Palais de Tokyo Archive

Becoming aware of our vulnerability triggered the rise of borders, fences and barriers around our bodies, homes, social circles and countries, bristled with concerns and suspicions. This situation has increased the already existing inequalities, when it comes to class privilege and exposure to risks. But in the deepening separation between public and private, we became aware that we actually touch and are touched more than we used to, which compels us to redefine our connections as well as our proximities. The artists gathered for “Antibodies” report on caresses, whispers, breathings and threats delving into our emotional transactions and our social relationships. While the exhibition does not turn the current health crisis into a topic, the artworks, as well as the relationships woven between them, allow for an exploration of distance and touch, considering the political and poetic load of the two terms. Antibodies consists of four interpenetrating zones, each offering a way of reading the exhibition as a whole. “Entrance”, “Tactile Tactics”, “Around the Fire” and “On The Line” each establish a dialogue between the works of artists very different in their practices. Through the notions of distance and touch, the four zones explore states of feeling and what makes for community at the domestic and public level, revealing tensions and struggles. Entrance: From the loudspeakers, voices rise in witness, protest and rebellion. In the distance, six faces with their fixed smiles have the air of customer satisfaction terminals. This entrance zone sets into question the way the art institution receives its visitors, hinting from the very start of the exhibition at a mood, an atmosphere: a sense of latent threat and the burgeoning desire to react. Tactile Tactics:  The works brought together in this zone all suggest excerpts from tales of war or struggle, in which bodies hemmed in prepare to face up to external threat while others set out to defend themselves against different forms of domination and violence. Does the clash of arms suggested here carry with it the rumour of revolt? Around the Fire: What does it mean, to form a community? What is it to be together? What are the ties that bind us? These are all questions raised by the works assembled in this zone. Navigating between the notions of inside and outside, their mutual dialogue affords a critical of the supposedly natural link between biological cell and family unit, of the two-way relationship between the intimacy of the domestic sphere and the issues of the public realm. On The Line: From intrusive bodies to confined bodies, from bodies at risk to bodies that put into question our accepted ideas of well-being and security, the works here create a zone of lability focused on the emotional states we experience: being happy, remaining calm in the face of crisis or threat,  continuing to be in the world beyond the membrane that constitutes our bodily envelope.

 Participating Artists: A.K. Burns, Xinyi Cheng, Kate Cooper, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Kevin Desbouis, Forensic Architecture, Lola Gonzàlez, Emily Jones, Florence Jung, Özgür Kar, Len Lye, Nile Koetting, Tarek Lakhrissi, Carolyn Lazard, Tala Madani, Josèfa Ntjam, Dominique Petitgand, Ghita Skali, Koki Tanaka, Achraf Touloub

Info: Curators: Daria de Beauvais, Adélaïde Blanc, Cédric Fauq, Yoann Gourmel, Vittoria Matarrese, François Piron, Hugo Vitrani, Assistant Curator:  Camille Ramanana Rahary, Palais de Tokyo, 13, avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, Duration: 23/10/20-3/1/21, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-19:00, www.palaisdetokyo.com