Purgatory
13.05.2022 — 02.06.2022
hongsue, Alyssa Berrez, Dara Maillard
TOXI Space, Zurich
Purgatory. What may resemble the veneer of an archaic conception, is to us the basis for an interpretation of our age. When one entered Purgatory, one does so awaiting redemption, the prelude to a divine afterlife. Purging oneself by treading through flames, what awaited gave this existence purpose. In contrast, the Purgatory of our times offers little resemblance of redemption. Stuck in a constant state of paralysis, the utopian dreams of once have given way to apocalyptic imagery counterbalanced by escapism.
The digital revolution, whilst bringing emancipatory power, professing freedom, has itself brought upon new forms of control. The digital panopticon, has spread its reach deep into our consciousness, ever sensed, but never fully perceived. It is in this contrast between the feeling of some digital omniscient presence, self-regulation and the labyrinths of the digital endless, that our freedom gets exploited. Our bodies, reinterpreted and transformed into data flows and capital relation become auto-destructive. Their purpose is no longer self- determined, but part of a continuous cycle of bio-power of encrypted data. It is here that a radical reshaping of our self-perception becomes of value. By exploring states of transcendence, we can resist these imposed meanings, for what is transcendent immediately resists association. Yet can we truly transcend in an age of mass shock and paralysis? Is this not just a phantasy of escapism, of self-sedation? The digital streams of images warp our perceptions, the serious and ironic coexists side-by-side. War and catastrophe come to life next to self-performance and expression. Is this not Purgatory? Unable to escape to anywhere clear we found ourselves numbed, roaming a limbo.
In form of a triptych - body, spirit, environment – we can explore these despondent states and explore the contradictions of the cul-de-sac we find ourselves in. If our bodies are externally interpreted and inscribed with meaning, we must subvert it and learn to feel the body anew. If our spirits are pushed to lethargy and paralysis, self-agency turns into a currency beyond our being. If our environment and circumstances are razed away into Aether, let us build from the ashes between our fingers.
Dara Maillard
Dara Maillard’s practice stands at the crossroads of the past reflected within the present. Culture, legacies, history and tradition function as a fountain of vitality, an energetic spring which we drink as a source of symbols and meaning.
Discussed are subject matters which can be read as the pillars of civilization: rites and tradition, systems of belief and religion, conceptions of good and evil (and the rejection thereof), genocides and massacres, just as the forms in which they are passed down, such as myths, folklore, poetry, painting.
Indulgences with tradition take form by rethinking, re-contextualizing and reframing elements of western legacies and art history. Attention is brought on how the establishment of belief systems and historical events have shaped our understanding of the modern world.
Alyssa Berrez
Alyssa Berrez indulges into what lays beyond the verge of the bodily. Through the mediums of sculpture, FX and performance, she captures a campy post-human take on femme identity along with the body’s properties of eternal strength and healing.
Thanks to years of experience in the field of performance, she still finds herself on the path of discovering the limits of the physical and psyche - believing that in a damaged world of overstimulation and dissociation, the connection between body and soul is scarcely realizable. The exploration of those peripheral spaces and how far one can push them, this purgatory of body and mind, are at the center of her artistic journey.
hongsue
hongsue deals with the boundaries bet-ween historical facts and fiction, through the relation between colonial hegemony and modern human beings' historicism.
Vertices explores the disasters caused by the lack of translation between human beings, technology and nature. Using the sequences and images that are extracted through accessible digital archives or implemented through the 3d rendering process, these failures of inter-medial communication become exposed.