AMBASSADE
05 Sep - 03 Oct 2009
AMBASSADE
Marc Bauer’s work examines matters of memory and remembrance as well as relationships based on force and domination. Through a blend of collective memory and his own personal recall, he confronts impressions from the past with those of his own time and builds a narration based on astonishingly diverse sources. Weaving unexpected bonds between these elements, he develops a story just as memories are built: with fragments, gliding from one period to another and by superimposition of impressions that endlessly echo one another.
Marc Bauer’s exhibition in the Praz-Delavallade gallery is titled Ambassade. At the same time as being a political space, an embassy is a private and a symbolic place.
Using this as his starting point, Marc Bauer associates images freely and leads the viewer through topics associated with war, genocide, representation and social codes. The different images he presents underline diverse male authoritarian figures: the war strategist, a master of war, the host, the torturer or the father figure.
The first room of the gallery depicts decomposition and deconstruction of order. The large drawings are like snapshots - some of which are shots taken by the artist at the Swiss embassy in Paris, relate directly to the ‘embassy’. The huge digital print of a still life, referencing the 17th century Dutch painter Peter Cleasz, attempts to order reality, controlling every detail of the composition: conquering death.
The second room mixes personal history with History. These different sets of drawings are fragmented narratives, remains of stories that the viewer will need to reconstruct by filling in gaps with their own memories, their own associations. The work process and end results of Marc Bauer’s work can be seen as analogical with the memory process of the brain.
In rue Duchefdelaville, the second space, Bauer presents a group of large wall drawings taken directly from personal memory. Here, the power balance in the family circle is depicted, further portraying the authoritarian father figure.
Working with free association, the works of Marc Bauer build an exhibition that questions our notions of devastation and power relations in family, institutional and social spheres.
Marc Bauer’s work examines matters of memory and remembrance as well as relationships based on force and domination. Through a blend of collective memory and his own personal recall, he confronts impressions from the past with those of his own time and builds a narration based on astonishingly diverse sources. Weaving unexpected bonds between these elements, he develops a story just as memories are built: with fragments, gliding from one period to another and by superimposition of impressions that endlessly echo one another.
Marc Bauer’s exhibition in the Praz-Delavallade gallery is titled Ambassade. At the same time as being a political space, an embassy is a private and a symbolic place.
Using this as his starting point, Marc Bauer associates images freely and leads the viewer through topics associated with war, genocide, representation and social codes. The different images he presents underline diverse male authoritarian figures: the war strategist, a master of war, the host, the torturer or the father figure.
The first room of the gallery depicts decomposition and deconstruction of order. The large drawings are like snapshots - some of which are shots taken by the artist at the Swiss embassy in Paris, relate directly to the ‘embassy’. The huge digital print of a still life, referencing the 17th century Dutch painter Peter Cleasz, attempts to order reality, controlling every detail of the composition: conquering death.
The second room mixes personal history with History. These different sets of drawings are fragmented narratives, remains of stories that the viewer will need to reconstruct by filling in gaps with their own memories, their own associations. The work process and end results of Marc Bauer’s work can be seen as analogical with the memory process of the brain.
In rue Duchefdelaville, the second space, Bauer presents a group of large wall drawings taken directly from personal memory. Here, the power balance in the family circle is depicted, further portraying the authoritarian father figure.
Working with free association, the works of Marc Bauer build an exhibition that questions our notions of devastation and power relations in family, institutional and social spheres.