RICOMINCIARE DAL CORPO -
STARTING AGAIN FROM THE BODY
Solo show by Silke Rehberg
opening Friday January 27th 2006, 6 p.m.
curator: Julia Draganovic
church of san paolo via f.selm/ modena (Italy)
The exhibition “Starting again from the body”, organised by the Province of Modena and curated by Julia Draganovic, will take place January 27th thru February 26th 2006 in the church of San Paolo in Modena (Italy), in via Selmi.
At a time when the term post-human already sounds like a historical category, where body art is almost an exclusive prerogative of fashion and advertising, where plastic surgery is every day life, in photographs and on television, and no longer just a masochist medical experimentation à la manière de Orlan, the return to the body as social mask is a real challenge. The sculptures exhibited are reminiscent of the ancient art of representing public people, emperors, divinities in more than human roles, at times even satirical ones: the works of the German artist Silke Rehberg, represent ten directors of art. Rather than portraits of men of culture, owners of art galleries, art historians, museum directors, they seem to be relics to be treasured in a museum deprived of their Aura thanks to the very ironic point of view – of bodies sanctified in the Pantheon of contemporary art.
Apparently, the division and contrast between the public and interior image is not the main theme of the work: the corporeity and physicalness of these symbols are at the forefront; icons with a charm that conventionally derives from their remoteness and importance, not from their humanity.
The artist uses a filter to humanise, demythologise a myth, and a smile to be less dramatic (reminiscent of Pirandellos work).
In Rehberg’s work the characters represented take on different roles. At times they are saints or primitive indigenous people or even angels. To all effects, the mask certifies an identity; what is the effect when the mask changes or is lowered, when the codes identifying a public role become hybrid and one is forced to look at the essence?
The show will be open until February 26th 2006
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays 5 p.m. 7.30 p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays 10 a.m. 1 p.m., 5 p.m. 8 p.m.
For information: Province of Modena
Council department of culture tel. 39- 059 209513-202 fax. 39-059 209458
tricoli.a@provincia.modena.it www.provincia.modena.it
