“I am young, it is true; but for well-born souls, value does not wait for the number of years,” Pierre Corneille says to Rodrigue, in Le Cid. But the reply also applies to Paloma Vauthier, visual artist, photographer, actress and videographer who attended the Kourtrajmé film school. At only 19 years old, the artist surprises with his maturity as everyone will see at the Galleria Continua, in Paris, in the Marais, which gave him carte blanche until May 7, 2022.
This first solo exhibition is called Metanova and it is about metamorphosis and bodily transformation where each human becomes an augmented, fantastic and cybernetic creature. Thus the disruptive work Fric Show which represents a spiral in which three dancers are immersed in the universe of the metaverse, this 3D internet.
Paloma Vauthier – 'Metanova' exhibition view at Galleria Continua / Paris, 2022. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith
Paloma Vauthier's Polaroids are also disturbing, with their hand-reworked film which provides an organic effect, between real and imaginary. The highlight of the exhibition is a breathtaking and short (4 minutes) pole dance performance, which questions the viewer about their way of consuming images. So, every Saturday at 17 and 18 p.m., the artist wraps his sylph-like body around the bar for a hypnotic moment.
“If this performance is so short, explains the one who previously exhibited at the Centquatre (19th), it is because pole dancing is a demanding discipline. Lifting and holding your body around the vertical bar to do the desired figures requires great physical as well as mental strength. »
The artist started this discipline at the age of 15, with the desire to provoke but knowing that this gymnastics has a dimension that goes beyond its sulphurous image. “It’s an art, coming from the world of the circus, which liberates women,” she says. In the 1970s, pole dancing began to take place in cabaret venues, led by women who, through an erotic show, played with their bodies, in return for financial compensation. This had the virtue of making them autonomous. “I do not deny, obviously, the erotic charge of pole dancing,” says the daring artist who has not finished exploring the art of metamorphosis.
PS: The Galleria Continua is also hosting until June 1st, the Good News exhibition by Pascale Marthine Tayou, a visual artist who no longer needs to be presented.
▼ Galleria continued
87 rue du Temple, 75003 Paris
From Tuesday to Saturday
11AM - 19PM
Phone: 01 43 70 00 88 and 06 74 03 73 65
Text: Katia Barillot
24.04.22
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