LONDON.- This autumn, the
Serpentine presents an exhibition by artist Marc Camille Chaimowicz (b. post-war, Paris). Increasingly influential for younger generations of artists, his work explores the space between public and private, design and art, and includes painting, sculpture and photography with prototypes for everyday objects, furnishings and wallpapers.
The exhibition An Autumn Lexicon spans Chaimowicz’s career offering a précis of his artistic vocabulary. It draws upon ideas of memory and place in a newly conceived installation that responds to the architecture, natural surroundings and history of the Serpentine which was converted from a 1930s park café to a gallery in 1970. Chaimowicz re-stages the pioneering early work Enough Tiranny first presented at the Serpentine Gallery in 1972. Described by the artist as a ‘scatter environment’, it combines art historical references with glam rock popular culture in an immersive installation filtered by coloured lights and a soundtrack.
Since these early installations and performances, Chaimowicz has continued to develop a broad visual language embracing materials and forms from both fine and applied art. For Chaimowicz, domestic objects and interiors are heavily invested with cultural, literary and biographical references, and configurations of his works take on the form of an expanded and evershifting still life. The exhibition combines wallpapers, screens and curtains with paintings, collages and a new site-specific wall mural. It also includes the large-scale commission For MvdR (2008) comprising nine painted marble panels, a work that acknowledges Chaimowicz’s early training in painting.
The choreography of objects, images and colours in the exhibition unfold as a mediation on remembrance, déjà-vu and time. An Autumn Lexicon also hosts work by guest artists whom Chaimowicz has invited and selected to be part of the exhibition. The accompanying catalogue, designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio, features new texts by Michael Bracewell and Mason Leaver-Yap with an essay by Stuart Morgan first published in 1983.
Showing concurrently at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery is the work of artist Helen Marten. Through the combination of diverse media, including sculpture, painting, film, photography and installation, Helen Marten and Marc Camille Chaimowicz create immersive environments that respond to the architecture of the galleries and weave together fragmentary narratives in a non-linear manner. Both exhibitions engage with the slippery nature of materials, distorting perceptions of familiar imagery and objects to explore the discrepancies between language and memory.
Marc Camille Chaimowicz (b. post-war, Paris) lives and works in London and Burgundy. Selected solo exhibitions include: Flat Time House, London (2016); Indipendenza, Rome (2016); Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2014); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2012); MD72, Berlin (2011) Nottingham Contemporary (2011); Inverleith House, Edinburgh (2011); Secession, Vienna (2009); Artists Space, New York (2009);De Appel, Amsterdam (2008) and Cabinet, London (2000). Recent group exhibitions include: Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2014); Manifesta 10, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2014); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, (2014); Tate Modern, London (2012); SculptureCentre, New York (2011); Hayward Gallery, London (2010); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2009) and the 5th Berlin Biennial (2008).
