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The ChertLüdde gallery in Berlin houses a Vanessa Safavi new project. The cook and the smoke detector explores nowadays life in contemporary, frenetic and complicated cities. The artworks displayed observe how people, and their bodies, face reality, technology and urban spaces in everyday life.
ATPdiary asked the artist some questions —
Francesca D’Aria: Let’s talk about the title of your show. Could you explain what does “The cook and the smoke detector mean”?
Vanessa Safavi: The cook and the smoke detector draws a kind fictional scenario where one would rather imagine an happy end but also suggests the potentiality of an accident. It draws a narration that could belong to a crime fiction, full of complicated enigmas. It illustrates well the spirit how I designed the show at ChertLuedde; a bit like a puzzle where you don’t necessarily have all the pieces.
FD: Which topics did you deal with working on this project?
VS: Between conceptual systems of language and personal narratives the show explores and questions the contemporary identity of the body in the constant optimization of technologies and its cultural impacts in our hyper-organized societies that has definitely driven it to a new sphere of identity and to a complex, vulnerable and schizophrenic fragility. With a certain playfulness, it treats the question of the body and the trauma, the banality of the misfortune and the complexity of the relationship mind-body.
FD: Which is the link among the artworks displayed? Is there any narrative exhibition intinerary?
VS: There is an itinerary that is induced obviously by the spaces but yes the way I work is often site specific. As a sculptor, the physicality of the space is important and can also be challenging in a good and playful way. As the title suggest already a odd association, the show reacts a bit the same way. The itinerary is clear but the link between the works might be unexpected.
FD: Which kind of dialogue have you established between your works and the exhibition space?
VS: I like to play along the classical space setting of the apartment and break it at the same time.
FD: Could you describe the works presented at the ChertLüdde gallery?
VS: Most of the work takes reference in subway and urban environments. I have gathered images from subways interiors holding structures from travels and I have designed for the show a new series of these holding structures, called “Holding Substitutes”. I have a fascination for the public transports. I think it is a very interesting way to understand society. Their indoor design mimics a stage, a setting that induces a dance or a play. I am interested about that dance and especially in the relation between that choreography and the people’s inner lives and bodies.
![Vanessa Safavi, The Cook and the Smoke Detector, ChertLüdde, Berlin, Installation view](http://atpdiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Vanessa-Safavi-The-Cook-and-the-Smoke-Detector-ChertLüdde-Berlin-Installation-view.jpg)
![Vanessa Safavi, Vanessa Safavi Desire melting at the surface of expectations (stay overnight), 2017 steel, paint, silicon, plastic 10 x 57 x 60 cm (3 7/8" x 22 1/2" x 23 5/8"), ChertLüdde, Berlin](http://atpdiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Vanessa-Safavi-The-Cook-and-the-Smoke-Detector-ChertLüdde-Berlin-1.jpg)
![Vanessa Safavi Hello Lobster! (2), 2017 Silicone, wood frame ø 57 cm (ø 22 1/2"), ChertLüdde, Berlin](http://atpdiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Vanessa-Safavi-The-Cook-and-the-Smoke-Detector-ChertLüdde-Berlin-.jpg)