Victoire Gonzalvez

As part of the group exhibition „Aera of Effect“, the artist invites viewers to take part in a purifying ritual, wherein they paradoxically become the exhibition’s agents of contamination. In this universe, visitors are encouraged to navigate the artist’s skillfully devised game. Numerous objects and sensory experiences are offered to us in this journey, and various dispensers deliver care utensils whose use is gradually revealed. The carved arabesque wardrobe contains an assortment of embroidered towels with corporate logos, which we can use when we dare to climb onto the platform and take off our shoes to plunge our feet into an industrial footbath placed there for this purpose. In the same room, visitors can also discover a balm crafted by the artist, exuding the aromatic essence of „holiness“. As we are invited to coat ourselves with this indeterminate ointment, its benefits seem to lie in its pharmaceutical green color. Its scent wafts through the room like the chlorine in the footbath, saturating the space with an atmosphere that is both, sterile and spiritual. The scent lingers on, as do the used towels, which have accumulated in a mound throughout the exhibition, allowing germs to proliferate in this ethereal space.

Text by Camille Velluet

November 2023