ART CITIES:Brussels, Marie Cool-Fabio Balducci

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, coloured pencils, desk, 2010, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-ParisSince 1995, Marie Cool, and Fabio Balducci have been producing actions on everyday objects and materials as a response to, and in critical relationship with, the Arte Povera movement; invested in the work conditions of the industrial and technical era, the artists choose to work with ordinary objects or materials easily accessible to consumers.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Fondation d’entreprise Hermès Archive

The solo exhibition by the French-Italian art duo Marie Cool Fabio Balducci at La Verrière, the art space of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in Brussels is part of the Fondation’s “Ballistic Poetry” season. Launched at La Verrière in spring 2016, the season explores the disconnect between certain rigorously programmatic practices and their outcomes in art. Marie Cool’s and Fabio Balducci’s use of gesture is usually associated with simple acts and repetition that imprints art with a common, ubiquitous language. Furthermore, through deploying exercises of perception to question certain normative conduct, postures, and values—in particular temporality—this artist duo reviews, modifies, and extends the framework of institutional spaces. As Guillaume Désanges, the curator of the exhibition says “Their approach engages deeply with the history of art and the contemporary artistic scene, though its intention surpasses both. Each action is an autonomous work, but its insertion into the exhibition space is invariably the object of profound reflection on the part of both artists, on the issues inherent in its presentation. Their seemingly minor inflections of form in response to context are what generates their work’s very particular impact, from one exhibition to the next. To borrow a term from ballistics: even at an oblique angle, their aim strikes at the very heart of art”. Cool and Balducci use the term sequence, borrowed from the language of film, to describe their actions in which, through a slow zoom effect, the viewer is led to a close-up revelation on their own experiences. The artists investigate individual memory and experience with the aim of producing emotional tension, moments of suspension and uncertainty, and as they put it “to touch people”. It is their intention to establish an immediate, intimate and charged dialogue with their audience. Every single action is followed by an interval, a moment of stasis that concentrates the attention on the physical space that Marie Cool repeatedly leaves vacant by standing on the side. Though it is in fact possible to describe some actions conceived by Marie Cool and Fabio Balducci, it is important to state that their work is completely detached from any narrative contingency.

Info: Curator: Guillaume Désanges, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, La Verrière, Boulevard de Waterloo 50, Brussels, Duration: 18/4-7/7/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 12:00-18:00,  www.fondationdentreprisehermes.org

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, wall or furniture, sunlight, 2006, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Consortium-Dijon
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, wall or furniture, sunlight, 2006, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Consortium-Dijon

 

 

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, sheet of paper (A4), sunlight , reflective elements, 2008, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and CAC Brétigny (Phalanstère project)
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, sheet of paper (A4), sunlight , reflective elements, 2008, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and CAC Brétigny (Phalanstère project)

 

 

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Balducci, Untitled, 2 sheets of paper (A4), biafine, 2004, Action, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Balducci, Untitled, 2 sheets of paper (A4), biafine, 2004, Action, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris

 

 

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2 sheets of paper (A4), sunlight, desk (property of C.B.), 2016, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, With thanks to: documenta 14, Courtesy of the artists artistes and Marcelle Alix-Paris
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2 sheets of paper (A4), sunlight, desk (property of C.B.), 2016, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, With thanks to: documenta 14, Courtesy of the artists artistes and Marcelle Alix-Paris

 

 

Left: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris. Right: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris
Left: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris. Right: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris

 

 

Left: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris. Right: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris
Left: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris. Right: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, 2005-2017, Action concentrated on a sheet of A4 paper, mixed media, 21 x 29,7 cm, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris

 

 

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, metal ruler, ballpoint pen, desk, 2001, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, metal ruler, ballpoint pen, desk, 2001, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Courtesy of the artists

 

 

Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, water, Scotch tape, desk, 2010, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Cecilia Becanovic, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Untitled, water, Scotch tape, desk, 2010, Action, various dimensions, Photo: Cecilia Becanovic, Courtesy of the artists and Marcelle Alix-Paris