Philippe Parreno sounded interesting. My daughter said: this is art, you don’t understand it. Yes, she was right about that.
by Karin Bergs
There was already a warning on the homepage that this exhibition is dark and only temporarily lit, which can be uncomfortable for epileptics or people who are sensitive to light. Although I am not an epileptic, I found this exhibition to be a horror trip. Yes, it was dark, you walked on dark, very soft carpet, which was very pleasant. However, there was a slight slope at the doors and I almost tripped. I didn’t see the unevenness on the ground, it was too dark for that. What was interesting was that many objects were moving, up and down or rotating around their own axis. A certain choreography could be sensed in the movements.
According to the description, this artist’s exhibitions were intended to represent ‘immersive journeys that connect parallel realities and alter the perception of space, time and boundaries.’ Huh? I don’t even understand this description.
Several of these dark rooms were decorated with black objects hanging from the ceiling. Some objects moved up and down. My feeling was: There’s space debris flying around here – has a satellite crashed, is this the end of the world? I couldn’t assign the objects.
Some of it resembled black car batteries, film cases, possibly cameras or other rectangular stuff. However, it didn’t give me a tattered, sharp-edged impression that would indicate an explosion. The rooms played with light, lighting and sounds. In one room there were only 25 almost spherical lamps hanging from the ceiling and forming the shape of a square, which illuminated the room in a yellow dim light. The light from a light bulb would be described as ‘warm white’. In another room, a long-haired woman was crouched on the floor and making strange noises. Should that be singing? To me, she seemed like she had stepped out of a zombie movie and was trying to show her allies the way to her with her wailing sounds. It’s a good thing she didn’t move, otherwise I would have run away in fright.
Philippe Parreno didn’t sound interesting at the end
There were also a few brightly lit objects that looked like heavy crystal glass that were also hanging and moving from the ceiling.
I didn’t feel comfortable there. I even felt completely uncomfortable and almost scared. But that has to be the case these days. We have to be kept in fear and terror so that we remain compliant. My problem is: I find life difficult enough, and art should be relaxation and joy for me and free me from everyday life. But I don’t see a horror trip as relaxation or ‘liberation’, I don’t need that.
Trailer for the exhibition (approx. 1.5 min):
