Bendana | Pinel Art Contemporain is pleased to present "Mirrors of Ice", an exhibition bringing together the work of five international artists. This project seeks to reveal the intimacy, vulnerability, and narratives that shape our bodies and identities. Together, these works reflect our ‘ice zones’: sensitive surfaces combining desire, memory, and resistance.
Dias & Riedweg (Mauricio Dias & Walter Riedweg) revisit the iconographic archives of Charles Hovland, an American photographer and activist who, between 1980 and 2000, published a weekly advertisement in The Village Voice offering to capture people's sexual fantasies. Arquivo Fantasia [Fantasy Archive] highlights the uniqueness of this collection, in which each person's identity is described by their sexual desire. In this way, the duo questions the effects of the transition from analogue photography to digital imaging on the representation of sexuality and gender issues.
Gori Mora explores intimacy through bathroom scenes inspired by his current home in Mount Florida, Glasgow. This place becomes a private, everyday space where moments of vulnerability and intimacy can unfold quietly. In Bath in Mount Florida and Mirrors & Mask, he uses night-time as a backdrop to suggest mystery and transformation. The night appears through windows and mirrors, creating a surreal atmosphere that raises questions about love, romantic relationships and identity.
Alireza Shojaian is interested in the construction of masculinity and the social norms that have shaped it throughout history. Through a sensual gaze on the male body, he questions the constructions of masculine identity and reveals the tenderness and vulnerability hidden behind these models. Nourished by a lived multiculturalism, Shojaian's visual language intersects collective memory and intimate history. He also embraces an aesthetic of ordinary beauty in which the body, serene and peaceful, becomes a place for projection, reappropriation and questioning of dominant narratives.
TORAJIRO explores the identity of sexual minorities through portraits of athletic young men whose melancholic expressions convey inner conflict, loneliness and social pressure. Alongside them, animals appear as sensitive and empathetic presences, offering a soothing counterpoint and suggesting the possibility of refuge. In this new series, the window highlights the fragile boundary between the inner and outer worlds, opening onto a vibrant landscape that pays homage to Van Gogh. In this way, TORAJIRO composes a space where vulnerability and silent support respond to each other.