Marguerite Humeau, project proposal, Riddle
English text below –
Il Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize è un premio internazionale per giovani artisti giunto alla sue seconda edizione, dedicato alla fusione di sculture in bronzo. Nella passata edizione il vincitore è stato Nicolas Deshayes (1983, Nancy, Francia), mentre per il 2017 abbiamo ancora un francese, e si tratta di Marguerite Humeau (1986). In quanto vincitrice, le aspettano una borsa di studio, una residenza presso la Fonderia Artistica Battaglia – a partire da novembre 2017 – e una mostra dedicata all’opera vincitrice creata in residenza, presentata in una mostra che verrà inaugurata durante la settimana di miart, ad aprile 2018.
La tematica della seconda edizione del premio verte sulla consapevolezza e responsabilità nate dalla fusione di una forma per sempre, dalla creazione di un’impronta eterna: dunque una riflessione sul tema del tempo nell’opera bronzea. Il progetto di Marguerite, dal titolo Riddles, è stato considerato dalla giuria il più aderente alla didascalia di questa edizione in quanto capace di coniugare coscienza storica ad una visione ancorata e interessata al presente, dimostrata anche dalla scelta di utilizzare un modello creato digitalmente, che crea quasi uno scarto anacronistico ma fertile tra la sua opera e l’antica tecnica della fusione a cera persa.
“Riddles è un progetto che approfondisce l’ambiguo stato dei protocolli di sicurezza nella nostra epoca securitaria, attraverso la ricerca dell’origine di queste nella storia antica, ed in particolare nella figura della Sfinge. Alcuni misteriosi frammenti di bronzo sono stati scoperti dagli archeologi tra i 61 scheletri ritrovati al Sito 117 nella Valle del Nilo: una delle evidenze più antiche di massacro organizzato, risalente a 13000 anni fa”.
La giuria del BFSP#02 è composta da sei professionisti di diverse istituzioni internazionali che operano nell’arte contemporanea e dalla Fonderia Artistica Battaglia nella persona di Camilla Bonzanigo (Cultura e Sviluppo): Martin Clark (Direttore del Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norvegia); Stefano Colicelli Cagol (Curatore al Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Norvegia); Michelle Cotton (Direttore alla Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germania); Alberto Salvadori (Curatore delle sezioni Established e Decades a MIART – Fiera d’Arte Contemporanea di Milano, Milano, Italia); Thomas Thiel (Direttore del Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germania); Moritz Wesseler (Direttore del Kölnischer Kunstverein, Colonia, Germania).
Fonderia Artistica Battaglia si è avvalsa di un gruppo di 10 advisors internazionali per la selezione degli artisti finalisti: Alexandra Baudelot (Co-Direttrice di Les Laboratoires D’aubervilliers, Aubervilliers, Francia), Eva Birkenstock (Direttrice del Kunstverein Für Die Rheinlande And Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germania, e Curatrice del programma di performance presso LISTE Art Fair, Basilea, Svizzera), Giovanni Carmine (Direttore della Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Sankt Gallen, Svizzera), Marie Cozette (Direttrice di La Synagogue De Delme, Delme, Francia), Laura Mclean-Ferris (Curatrice al Swiss Institute di New York, New York, US), Simone Menegoi (Critico e Curatore Indipendente, Milano, Italia), Mihnea Mircan (Curatore Indipendente, Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgio), Fabian Schöneich (Curatore di Portikus, Frankfurt/Mainector, Germania), Chris Sharp (Scrittore e Curatore Indipendente, Mexico City, Messico), Roberta Tenconi (Curatrice a Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milano, Italia).
Gli artisti giunti in finale per la seconda edizione del Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize sono: Haseeb Ahmed (1985, US), Jean-Marie Appriou (1986, FR), Eva Barto + Sophie Bonnet-Pourpet (1987, FR – 1988, FR), Kasia Fudakowski (1985, UK), Ector Garcia(1985, US), Than Hussein Clark (1981, US), Miriam Laura Leonardi (1985, CH) e Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli (1982, IT).
Marguerite Humeau, ECHO, 2016, a matriarch engineered to die, exhibition view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Polystyrene, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, silicone, nylon, glass artificial heart, water pumps, water, potassium chloride, powder-coated metal stand, sound, W 120,2 x L 449,6 x H 136,1 cm (including stand) + Glass Heart W 30 x L 60 x H 30 cm, Courtesy the Artist, C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels, DUVE Berlin
Marguerite Humeau is the winner of the second edition of the Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize, International Prize for young artists dedicated to bronze casting.
Marguerite Humeau wins a scholarship, an artist-residency in the historical Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, beginning at the end of November 2017, and an exhibition of the winning artwork produced during the residency. The exhibition will open in April 2018, during the next edition of Miart, Milan’s Contemporary Art Fair.
The theme of the second edition of the BFSP invited artists to re ect upon the responsibilities and awareness implied in casting a form – a value, or a content – for eternity. After a careful analysis of the nalists’ projects, selected by 10 international advisors, the Jury of the BFSP announced that the winner of the BFSP#02 is Marguerite Humeau (1986, France) with the project Riddles, selected for the artistic research and coherent re ection within this year’s theme.
The Jury considered “Riddles” the most coherent project to the theme of the BFSP#02 call: an in-depth analysis of the conservation properties of bronze, and the translation of such quality as a potential vehicle of contemporary values in the future. Humeau’s project combines a detailed historical research to a well-informed creation of a contemporary mythology. The digitalised initial model proposed by the artist furthermore creates an interesting dialogue with the use of the ancient technique of lost-wax bronze casting. The work was conceived within an ongoing exhibition project, which will see the collaboration of the artist with different cultural realities around the globe.
Riddles aims at discussing the ambiguous status of security protocoles in our contemporary securitarian era by looking at their origin in ancient histories and more speci cally in the gure of the sphinx. Mysterious bronze pieces were discovered by archeologists in the 61 human skeletons found at Site 117 in the Nile Valley, the earliest evidence of an organised massacre, that happened around 13000 years ago. Who killed those early hominids? Are the bronze pieces remnants of the talons of a vulture, or of a mythical sphinx who would have come to life and be a protagonist in this brutal scene?
Marguerite Humeau’s work stages the crossing of great distances in time and space, transitions between animal and mineral, and encounters between personal desires and natural forces.
The work explores the possibility of communication between worlds and the means by which knowledge is generated in the absence of evidence or through the impossibility of reaching the object of investigation. Marguerite Humeau weaves factual events into speculative narratives, therefore enabling unknown, invisible, or extinct forms of life to erupt in grandiose splendour.
Combining prehistory, occult biology and science fiction in a disconcerting spectacle – the works resuscitate the past, con ate subterranean and subcutaneous, all the while updating the quest genre for the information age.
The BFSP#02 Jury is composed by 6 professionals acting in six different international Institutions operating in the contemporary arts, and a representing member of Fonderia Artistica Battaglia in the person of Camilla Bonzanigo (Culture and Development): Martin Clark (Director of Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway), Stefano Colicelli Cagol (Curator at Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Trondheim, Norway), Michelle Cotton (Director at Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany), Alberto Salvadori (Curator of Established e Decades Sections at MIART, Milan, Italy), Thomas Thiel (Director of Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germany), Moritz Wesseler (Director of Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Germany).
Fonderia Artistica Battaglia worked with 10 international advisors for the final artists’ selection: Alexandra Baudelot (Co-Director of Les Laboratoires D’aubervilliers, Aubervilliers, France), Eva Birkenstock (Director of Kunstverein Für Die Rheinlande And Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany, and curator of the Performance Project at LISTE Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland), Giovanni Carmine (Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland), Marie Cozette (Director of La Synagogue De Delme, Delme), Laura Mclean-Ferris (Curator at Swiss Institute of New York, New York, US), Simone Menegoi (Independent Curator and Art Critic, Milan, Italy), Mihnea Mircan (Independent Curator, Bruxelles, Belgium), Fabian Schöneich (Curator at Portikus, Frankfurt/Mainector, Germany), Chris Sharp (Independent Curator and Writer, Mexico City, Mexico), Roberta Tenconi (Curator at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy).
The nalists artists of the second edition of the Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize are: Haseeb Ahmed (1985, US), Jean-Marie Appriou (1986, FR), Eva Barto + Sophie Bonnet-Pourpet (1987, FR – 1988, FR), Kasia Fudakowski (1985, UK), Ector Garcia (1985, US), Than Hussein Clark (1981, US), Miriam Laura Leonardi (1985, CH) e Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli (1982, IT).
Marguerite Humeau, ECHO, 2016, a matriarch engineered to die, exhibition view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Polystyrene, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, silicone, nylon, glass artificial heart, water pumps, water, potassium chloride, powder-coated metal stand, sound, W 120,2 x L 449,6 x H 136,1 cm (including stand) + Glass Heart W 30 x L 60 x H 30 cm, Courtesy the Artist, C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels, DUVE Berlin
Marguerite Humeau, FELICIE, 2016, A female engineered to be self-destructive – it gets drunk with ethanol that comes from a masala fruit, exhibition view, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Polystyrene, white paint, acrylic parts, latex, silicone, glass artificial masala fruit, ethanol, water pumps, water, nylon, powder-coated metal stand, sound, W 82,3 x L 332,1 x H 209,5 cm (including stand), Courtesy the Artist, C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels, DUVE Berlin
