Naturisme et Culturisme

Steven Le Priol

19 November > 17 December 2016


Naturisme et Culturisme [ Naturism and Culturism ] is a general term for something that, in these last two years, has represented a research and working framework.


The title Naturisme et Culturisme is loosely based on the " Nature et Culture " concept, which has often served as an introduction to the philosphical discipline, and also diverts it, by adding the ism suffix. This very suffix stresses the replacement of the slow and thorough generation of the philosophical thinking with the immediacy and the ready-made recipes of parapsychology or personal development. This work is focused on the dead utopian dreams of the second half of the 20th century, whose development is once again investigated by means of a disillusioned subjectivity, while considering the contemporary practices thus resulting, with a touch of irony.


Transformations of a seascape are also implemented by the glass in front of the photograph: in Overseas, ingeniously cracked safety glass evokes the sea’s potential violence, but at the same time, the breakage in the thick glass infatuatingly gleams, suggesting the thrill of light on water. In Fenêtre, a stormy sky is framed behind rippled acrylic glass, turning the idea of heavenly danger into one of a depressing outbreak of pouring rain.


Therefore, the artworks of the exhibition fulfil their aspirations in terms of genre, since genres exist, speaking either of cinema or literature. A genre with jumbled references: rituals, fake science, Latin scholars' insults, magic, beliefs, drug, misunderstandings, popular psychology or lucid dreams.


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