Rien presque rien
Dias & Riedweg
21 October > 25 November 2017
Bendana Pinel Art Contemporain Gallery is pleased to present for the second time in Paris the work of Dias & Riedweg.
The selection of six pieces question the state of real politics at a global scale with humor and perplexity.
Some 80 different quotes from politicians and personalities pronounced during the period 1944 to 2014; sentences said and published by Churchill, Hitler, Sadam Hussein, Latinamerican dictators, Bush, Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe are juxtaposed with philosophical reflections from Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett, fostering a rather absurd and dramatic understanding of our reality in these times. For the exhibition the phrases were printed on posters, doormats and a handwoven tapestry, respectively called “Big Block”, “Doormats” and “Big Carpet”.
The installation “Under Pressure” composed of twenty barometers indicates the same “air pressure” in cities from where mass migration, caused by war and poverty, continue to press and transform international borders; whilst the four-channel video installation “Hot Coals” and the single channel video “Throw” directly materialize the needs and the act of insurrection. In these two video works, archival footage of political demonstrations are edited alongside images of natural phenomena that conjure an atmosphere of unpredictability for the years to come.
Recipients of prizes from the Guggenheim Foundation New York, Pro Helvetia and Video Brasil, Dias & Riedweg work together since 1993. Their works are present in major international institutions such as MACBA Barcelona, KIASMA Helsinki, Centre Georges Pompidou, Migros Museum Zurich, Pinacoteca São Paulo and they have exhibited in important venues such as The Venice Biennale, The Bienal de São Paulo and Documenta, in Kassel.
