Metaphoria III

Group Show
Le Cent-quatre (Paris).

Metaphoria III
Le Cent-Quatre.
104 Rue d'Auberviliers, Paris
Artists: Nina Beier, Adriano Costa, Rui Costa, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Kenneth Goldsmith, David Horvitz, Ana Jotta, Jeremy Millar, Pepo Salazar, Karin Sander.
Curated by Silvia Guerra

2018

What can we do with art today? How can we break out of the enclosed space of the so-called ‘visual’ arts? Is it possible to foster dialogue and debate between all artistic domains? These concerns are at the heart of Metaphoria, a series of travelling group exhibitions, born from a dialogue between Silvia Guerra and writer Rui Costa. Its peregrinations, from the north of Portugal in 2011, to Athens in 2013, and today to Paris, are a concrete illustration of this desire for openness.  
Each chapter of this project explores and develops the theme of the ‘metaphor’ as a medium but also in terms of its meaning in Modern Greek today, i.e., a ‘means of transport’ from one place to another, and from one world to another. Metaphoria is a project that has developed over time, a timeframe that is long enough for ideas and perspectives to evolve from one edition to the next, each time giving birth to new interpretations. What is reality in books and short stories? And what is fiction in the myths of today and tomorrow? When reality and imagination bleed into each other, any attempts at distinguishing between them is in vain. All that remains is the memory of poetry, this unique language whose intelligence is non-descriptive.  

 

Metaphoria III results from a choice: that of creating and maintaining in the exhibited works a sense of hesitation between what they are and their transformation by our imagination. The aim of this exhibition is to open the field between what an artwork allows us to see and what it evokes in the mind of the viewer.  

By means of the artworks presented and its scenography, Metaphoria III offers a strange kind of reflection of our everyday lives. The artists invited to participate in this edition transport some of the elements of ordinary modern life out of their habitual context, thus revealing the ambiguity and poetry harboured within. Items of second-hand furniture can therefore be seen amongst artworks by Nina Beier, Adriano Costa, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Kenneth Goldsmith, David Horvitz, Ana Jotta, Jeremy Millar, Pepo Salazar and Karin Sander, as well as Adam and Eve, figures reworked and reinterpreted by Rui Costa in his last novel, who can be found in the exhibition space at weekends, deep in conversation.

What does Metaphoria III really look like? To find out, all we have to do is push aside the tarp of a removal truck. Literally and metaphorically, this is already a good starting point.

2018.10.06

Theory from Kenneth Goldsmith – Performed by SHIRT
Metaphoria III performances – Le Centquatre Paris – curated by Silvia Guerra

ANCR’AGES – Performed by Hélène Breschand
Metaphoria III performances – Le Centquatre Paris – curated by Silvia Guerra