with :

Alexandre Lavet
New-territories / m4
Ruangsak Anuwatwimon
Thomas Merret
 
Exhibition/to exhibit/to show/to reveal/to point/ <—-> intimate/inside/hide 
 
It’s difficult to start.
 
(In)territories/rituals is an exhibition that I wanted first, to work as a « pause ». The initial idea was to transform the gallery as an « open » storage space. Like the famous Schaulager in Switzerland by the architects Herzog & Meuron, or the« Pinacothèque de Paris » that recently closed, where artworks are in-between two positions : stored/hidden/kept and exhibited/showed/shared. The gallery was supposed to absorb this format and reveal a selection of produced works or simply offers the possibility with invited artists/architects to use (abuse) of this temporary condition. Doing so, all the works shown would have represented this moment of latency.
The first two choices were works that actually were stored in the gallery.

One
Vides (Voids), 2011-2015, is a triptych (not anymore) of framed printed picture(s). When we look at these (this) picture(s) we try to find answers, content. What we have is 3 (1) empty space(s).  *
 
I decided just to introduce one of his work in the space. It needs to breath. 
 
*First we quickly identify the so-called white cubes which makes us think that these (this) empty space(s) could eventually represent galleries/art spaces. But there is nothing inside. Just the void. For this series, Alexandre Lavet « steal » pictures from the internet, from exhibitions that occurred in many different galleries. The different sizes of the pictures (here with one it is actually hard to compare, but documentation can be provided on request), represent their resolution when found on internet.
Usually art spaces are waiting to be filled with works so they can pretend to assume their function of exhibiting, but there, using digital technics, Lavet will erase all the artworks, the content, to only keep a neutral and empty space. A white cube. Interested in the exhibition language, from the conditions of showing, the repainting process of the walls after each shows, the informations tags or the tools used, Lavet’s generate from these codes, a corpus of simulacra that reminds us the complexity of the exhibition language.

Two
The second work selected from the storage is from Thomas Merret.
37°48’07’’ N 12°25’27’’ E (237,9 SW), 2015, is a photography of the sea. Or better said of the seas. That almost monochrome photography, is the result of a travel made by the artist to capture the invisible. With a view camera and really precise coordinations, Merret, since 2011, has started to hunt territories, invisible frontiers of the infinite blue mass. From a 1953’s publication by the International Hydrographic Organisation that he found, Merret captures the limits of the Oceans and the seas, more precisely, their encounters.
In 37°48’07’’ N 12°25’27’’ E (237,9 SW), Merret shows the meeting of the Tyrrhenian sea with the Mediterranean sea from a Sicilian point of view ( you can find out the exact position of the artist by using the coordinates ). Like a romantic Turner looking to the sea, Merret’s quest of capturing the invisible, transforms our perception of frontiers through these unique shots.
 
Works are stored awaiting to be shown in which condition their meanings are activated, to be acquired by collectors to furnish (furniture) sense in an organized private space.
Works are simply waiting to be given a sense when they are stored.

.... Full text on request.