UNBOXING#3
_Giuliana Zefferi

Sans hâte et sans muscle, the third chapter of UNBOXING, presents a selection of printed images, a kind of utopian landscape where the sensitive relationship between matter, form and perception is revealed by observation. These images are part of the project Après le geste, le grand dehors. Through this project, the artist questions the form of the object/archetype, the use associated with this form, the sacralisation and reinterpretation, from the gesture that generated and used it to its current interpretation and the possibility of weaving a new story, of describing what might have been.

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The matter, the object, the action that it receives, activates or evokes, the narratives that accompany creation, come together to build hybrid sites (ruins of a present in the making) and to open up potential narratives.

The models, suspended architectural landscapes from the series Près de vous, are composed of spaces-rooms partitioned and connected by openings or doors. Each room is inhabited by shapes of objects/prototypes/archetypes. We namely recognise chairs, allusions of inertia or otherwise. Their daily use provides us with clues to imagine a possible functionality. Their positioning suggests interconnections between individuals/organisms destined to inhabit these places, to share the same trouble, the same perception and experience of space.

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The questioning of the object, of its use and heritage, is superimposed with the question of the transformation, transcription and appearance of the work and its materiality - by the artist - from the real to the virtual space.

In the real space, the work is designed to accompany the movement of the spectator. For UNBOXING, the image is built to accompany the movement of the eye in the image. Giuliana Zefferi transcribes the experience of the perception of the work from the real to the virtual. In addition, Giuliana Zefferi’s proposals integrate the thick temporality of the virtual space, an archive of information and potentially perpetual data, sources of new codes. 

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The artist's research spans reflections on matter, assembly, permeability between multiple practices and theoretical knowledge, and a reflection on the (re)presentation of the object as a work of art and its perception by the receiver/spectator. 

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The question of appearance and representation also affects the construction material of the series. To make the three sculptures, Giuliana Zefferi used papier-mâché. A bio-sourced and compostable material. Papier-mâche is also part of an historical tradition of craftsmanship (especially in Mexico, where works made of it are called “cartón piedra”- stone). It is indeed cartón piedra, since in the exhibition views, the material resembles concrete attacked by stains of colors: ruines, lichens, simple illumination, etc. Its true nature is revealed with a magnifying glass, in the detail, whereas to scale 1/1, its appearance changes, in a perennial mimicry that accompanies observation. 

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The artist also transcribes this play of scales in the images of Sans hâte et sans muscle. The series shows an assembly of photographic fragments, shots of existing works and of graphic and pictorial alterations and distortions that make use of the same processes of deformation, compression, folding and polishing that its micro-architectures undergo in the space of the real.

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Every passage implies a sacralisation or a change of status, the addition of a stratum of interpretation. The subject of the image remains the metamorphosed object which can (always) be a (re)composition device of another suspended space, another composition or architecture. 

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The continuous play of scales, assembly and disintegration forces us to change our points of view, to jump from one platform to another, to dance/return/(re)touch and perceive the new figures that are presented to us, from the object to its image, from printing to pixel frames on a computer. 

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Giuliana Zefferi’s universes generate patterns, moving like in a strings game (the game which consists of creating different shapes from a loop of string slipped between the fingers), which allows us to “stay with the trouble” described by Donna Haraway. Taking part in the game means accepting and transmitting. Accepting that the threads can create unexpected narratives and interpretations, evolve into other sensitive scenarios, or simply disappear. Transmitting one’s own experience, perception and sensations to interpret the stories and provide them with sequels. 

(AD + OdN, trad. JP)

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photo credits for sculptures: Studio Luma

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