Artist Carsten Höller’s double-take on Jean Pigozzi’s collection of Japanese
and Congolese art, juxtaposed to form JapanCongo, will be presented at
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture this summer.
Carsten Höller’s curatorial approach has resulted in the creation of an
abstract artwork in its own right. He has chosen 16 Congolese artists
(including Pierre Bodo, Chéri Samba, Pathy Tshindele,Jean Depara, Cheik Ledy,
and Bodys Isek Kingelez) to be confronted with 47 Japanese artists (including
Natsumi Nagao, Nobuyoshi Araki, Akihiro Higuchi, Kazuna Taguchi, Teppei
Kaneuji, Hiroki Tsukuda, and Keiichi Tanaami).
The exhibition’s design and installation by Höller positions Japan on one side
and Congo on the other in the form of a corridor, highlighting the similarities
and differences between the two groups of work. At the narrowest point, the
visitor becomes the missing link between the two walls, and the cultural
personalities of Japan and Congo draw closer and yet enhance the precision and
complexity of Japan versus the art brut style of the Congo.
This architecture of duality generates a coexistence of two cultural identities
that is central to Höller’s work. Symmetry and reduplication, lead to the
visitors to walk through the central space with pictures and small chambers on
either side. However, they can also choose the reverse option, the exhibition’s
negative double, and follow a route behind the walls that have been left
untreated and visibly makeshift.
JapanCongo has evolved from Höller’s continued exploration of the
concept of duality. He divides and re-divides spaces and objects, such as
The Giant Triple Mushrooms exhibited at Garage last year. Recently
however, his interest in division has been engaged in the explorations of the
theme of cultural specificity. In association with Fondazione Prada, he opened
The Double Club in London (2008-2009) - the famous bar, restaurant and
discotheque, where visitors’ experience of the interiors, music and dining were
divided completely into ‘Congolese’ and ‘Western’ parts.
Curator’s Biography
Carsten Höller (b. Brussels, 1961) is a German artist working
and living in Stockholm, Sweden. Höller's artistic practice focuses on personal
experience, and often involves viewer participation. His intention is to
produce a specific, individual or social experience that occurs the moment one
comes into contact with the artwork.
His works have been shown internationally over the last two decades, including
solo exhibitions at Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000), the ICA Boston (2003),
Musée d'Art Contemporain, Marseille (2004), MASS MoCA, (2006), and Kunsthaus
Bregenz, Austria (2008). In 2006, he conceived the giant slide installation
Test Site at the Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern, and represented Sweden
(with Miriam Bäckström) at the 51st Biennale di Venezia. Recently he opened the
Congolese and Western restaurant, nightclub, disco The Double Club in London in
collaboration with Fondazione Prada for a six-month period.
Collector’s Biography
Jean Pigozzi (born 1952) is an Italian businessman, art collector and
photographer. He lives between Geneva, New York and Panama. Over the last
twenty years, Pigozzi has put together the world’s largest collection of
contemporary African art (www.caacart.com). The collection is based in Geneva
and has been presented in major museums around the world. For the last three
years, he has also been collecting contemporary Japanese art by young Japanese
artists
(www.japigozzicollection.com).
Jean Pigozzi started taking pictures at age 7. Since then, he never stopped
photographing everything around him, which meant friends, dogs, icebergs,
himself and a great many celebrities. His photographs have been shown at the
Modern Art Museum in Paris, the Light Gallery in New York, the Helmut Newton
Foundation in Berlin, the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles and recently
at Gagosian Gallery in New York. His latest book: Catalogue Deraisonne
(Steidl-Dangin) was published in October 2010.
Frustrated that he could not find clothing that matched his colorful and casual
aesthetics, Jean Pigozzi created LimoLand, a menʼs clothing and accessories
line, in 2007. As founder and creative director, Jean is the heart and soul of
the brand, which represents the culmination of his many years collecting,
working with colors and prints and traveling the world. It now has its own
LimoLand store in New York. The brand has been featured in such influential
fashion magazines as Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, T: The New York Times Magazine and
The International Herald Tribune ( www.alimoland.com). In 1996, Jean started
buying land in Panama, on the pacific coast, and created the Liquid Jungle lab
that is dedicated to research in marine biology and brings high technology to
environmental conservation. Scientists and students from around the world use
the marine lab facilities and experimental farm to conduct their research
(www.liquidjunglelab.com.).
Dombeya Wines provided for the opening of JapanCongo by:
