Den Berlin-baserte kunstneren Jean-Michel Wicker (f. 1970) åpner i morgen, 30. oktober, utstillingen futurbella i Bergen Kunsthall. Utstillingen utgjør den ene halvdelen av en solopresentasjon som også omfatter en utstilling i Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.
Utstillingstittelen henviser til den italienske futuristen Giacomo Balla, som signerte sine malerier «Futurballa», og som i 1915 medforfattet Direzione del Movimento Futurista, et manifest som ikke må forveksles med det tidligere Manifesto del futurismo som ble forfattet noen år tidligere. Her tok Balla til orde for remodellering av universet gjennom «integrerende rekonstruksjon». Wickers mangslungne estetiske univers berører liknende strategier og består av bøker, fanziner, parfyme, røyk; og et alfabet han har redusert til å bestå utelukkende av bokstavene «b» og «e». I futurbella skal disse elementene organiseres og reorganiseres for å skape nye meningsrom. Tidligere har Wicker også benyttet fanziner, flygeblader og plakater i sitt kunstnerskap; trykte medier hjemmehørende i motkulturen. Motstand virker å være relevant også i futurbella: Det redigerte alfabetet kan leses som «be», være, men unndrar seg å bli lest som en fullendt formulering. Selv betegner kunstneren trykte medier som noe nyttig og farlig, en form som tillater direkte kommunikasjon av idéer og ønsker.
I utstillingen vil Wicker presentere bevegelige skulpturer, pappmasjéfigurer, sitt eget «barbecue manifesto» og utvidede bøker. Det siste er objekt som foldes ut i utstillingsrommet, som invitasjoner til nærlesning av boksiden. Kunstkritikk fikk fatt i Wicker på epost mens han var på vei til Bergen. Intervjuet gjengis på originalspråket og, etter kunstnerens ønske, uredigert.
Kunstkritikk: The relationship between the reader and the book is often presented as something highly intimate. What lies behind your interest in changing the status of the book from an item one holds in one’s hand or in one’s lap to becoming one of your spatial book objects?
Jean-Michel Wicker: New ways or manners to see/do/read/experience or think about ‘things’ by questioning any sort of pre-conceived or established form or status. It’s dangerous.
I noted that you state an interest in printed media’s ability to express sexuality, independence, resistance and identity: Do you consider printed media an «extension of man», rather than an autonomous unit?
Printed media is a very powerful tool which allows you to play easily from one surface to another – for better or worse. And it’s again dangerous. Very. I am a homosexual, printed medias help. Printed media is a way to express in a simple and direct way ideas, desires.. be it image- or text based.
You are currently showing in Künstlerhaus Stuttgart as well as your exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall, which opens on Friday. You describe these exhibitions as one project. Can you expand on this?
I’m born with a ‘multiple personality disorder’ which in this case gives me the possibility to be 10 different persons / characters at the same time. It’s a plus, I enjoy it a lot. This was dangerous once, not anymore – its pleasure maximum. Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, or Catherine Deneuve helped me a lot here. As my skin doctor says : ‘Do not worry, we always quit one addiction for another’. And he’s right. On that topic, I’m a survivor – a living example of what people can go through and survive.
Do you find that the frameworks set by the two institutions influence your exhibition in different ways?
Completely. Space as people (be it curators, collaborators, technicians, gallerists, friends, amants etc) define the development of exhibitions. Everyone plays a role in the evolution and the changes. Time as well. So many parameters to deal with – you have to be flexible and/or to accept change as inevitable – as you want to keep your creative energy and desires alive. I must say, in this case, everyone in the chain was / is really great. I’m probably the worst, ‘a monster’ ! as often called by my boyfriend.
Speaking of different parameters: Could you say something about the kinetic sculptures? And how movement plays a part in futurbella?
Kinetic works are books in motion.
At one point, the Italian futurist Giacomo Balla took the pseudonym Futurballa when signing his paintings. Could you elaborate on the underlying reference to Futurism in your exhibition? Does the idea of speed and force/violence play in here?
Definitely. And I play – again – with that, except that Balla became Bella, and futurballa is futurbella. With exactly 100 years of differences in between.
Fog and fog machines have been incorporated in your shows more than once. Do they hold a certain meaning in the scenography of the show, or are there perhaps more sensual reasons for their presence?
Many sensual reasons actually at the same time; fog-juice as ‘filter’ (for protection), ‘screen’ (for projection), ‘curtain’ (layers), for blurring boundaries of perceptions, for ‘removing’ information from the surfaces, for performative reasons (you as a spectator have to activate the machine), for giving a sense of space and time and to feel aware of where you are exactly at that moment at that place doing this and that, for playful purposes, the list goes on. I even actually reached this point now : The state of ‘after the smoke-machine’. I do / see things differently today. It’s not the same.
The book and the alphabet are central in your practice. The reduced alphabet appears not only to create meaning, but to bear meaning in itself. I’ve noticed that both in the exhibition title «futurbella» and in other written material, you use lower case letters. I’m curious as to why, if there is any particular reason?
For esthetic reasons : it is very beautiful. And anti-hierarchical. It’s horizontal thinking.
