ART CITIES:Paris,Douglas Gordon

Working across mediums and disciplines, Douglas Gordon investigates moral and ethical questions, mental and physical states, as well as collective memory and selfhood. Using literature, folklore, and iconic Hollywood films in addition to his own footage, drawings, and writings, he distorts time and language in order to disorient and challenge.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Archives Kamel Mennour

An instance of Douglas Gordon’s life is the stepping stone for his solo exhibition “The anatomy of my desire” at both spaces of galerie kamel mennour in Paris. When the artist was 6 years old he watched on TV  Albert Lamorisse’s sort film “The Red Balloon” (1956). The film follows Pascal, a young boy who, on his way to school one morning, discovers a large helium-filled red balloon. As he plays with it, he realizes it has a mind and will of its own. It begins to follow him wherever he goes, never straying far from him, and at times floating outside his bedroom window, as his mother will not allow it in their apartment. The balloon follows Pascal through the streets of Paris, and they draw a lot of attention and envy from other children as they wander the streets. The film ends as all the other balloons in Paris come to Pascal’s aid and take him on a cluster balloon ride over the city. In June 2019, the balloon has grown in size, floating above the glass roof of the gallery. Free from the street lamp. The balloon is the pure metaphor of desire—ungraspable, unpredictable and provocative. After more than thirty years of work, Douglas Gordon He wants to know what his desire is made of, an unconscious, indestructible energy, which supports existence and whose roots lie in childhood. “I want to understand. I am trying to see if desire is plural or if it’s always the repetition of the same thing”. These words are the compass of an investigation, one that is subtly underwritten by a seminal filmography. On entering the gallery, a line of 52balloon knots, one in gold, leads us towards the sky, on the way passing a raven-brush dipping into a jar of watercolour water. The work is an homage to two childhood professors who opened Gordon’s eyes when he was a child. They also encouraged him to visit Paris. The continuity in being draws the line forward. On each of his birthdays, Gordon adds another knot. In the gallery’s other space, the grey sweater of six-year-old Pascal and the camel coat that forty-something Paul wears in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” (1972) have each been tailored in both an adult and a child version. In “Solid Milk” (2019) Gordon’s left hand becomes a camera and he films the right hand grasping a block of butter. The hand, sensual and predatory, lubricated by the fat, slowly transfers its vital energy to the butter, which melts in an erotic alliance. The videos echo “Blue” (1998) and “Blue II (Featuring Franz West”) (2007), where Gordon’s hands simulate a sexual act. Hands and the figure of the double are both red threads in his body of work. They stand for sensuality, duplicity, love-hate, conflict, subjection. What is desire? Could routine be an escape from this infinite question, could it shore up one’s wanderings? In seventeen watercolours made one in a day, like a meditation on routine, Gordon explores the act of daily-making-the-bed-with-hospital-corners by the legionnaire in Claire Denis’ film “Beau Travail” (2000). Gordon made an impression of a replica of the bedcover. The video “Silence, Exile, Deceit” (2013, reissued in 2019) evokes the vital decision of Stephen Dedalus, the hero of James Joyce’s novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”.

Info: Galerie Kamel Mennour, 47 rue Saint‑André‑des‑Arts, Paris and 6 rue du Pont de Lodi, Paris, Duration: 7/6-20/7/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.kamelmennour.com