Alex Cecchetti: Tamam Shud

La Ferme du Buisson Centre for Contemporary Art is welcoming Alex Cecchetti for his biggest-ever solo show in France. This one-of-a-kind artist will be offering viewers a totally new experience, a symphonic, immersive investigation at the junction of the visual and the performing arts.

“I died identity-free. Clothes labels, fingerprints, shoe sizes were unstitched, eliminated, washed off, bleached out and consigned to oblivion. The sole clue, a small scrap of paper hidden in a secret pocket of the trousers. Written on it, the closing words of a Persian poem: Tamam Shud. This is the end. This is all I am.” Drawing on a strange news item, Cecchetti probes the mysteries of identity as he investigates the causes of his own disappearance. In this project, the product of two years’ work, the exhibition plays a core part and serves as the matrix for a novel to be published in January 2018.

Tamam Shud means “this is the end” in Persian, yet here it is the starting point for a zanily lyrical narrative in which each room at the art centre is a chapter. The Music Room, Dance Room, Reading Room, Cabinet Erotique and Death Room plunge us into a physical and mental journey that calls on all the senses. We read, dance, play music, consult the Tarot. We love and we die.

The exhibition also takes the form of an enormous musical score in which the viewers—like the works—become both instruments and musicians. Each installation offers different levels of interpretation: more than mere objects of contemplation, the artworks are sources of experiences and narratives in which fiction blends with reality. Dancers, singers and musicians will be performing throughout the exhibition. The liaison staff become “detectives” handing on the artist’s stories and visitors are invited to “live in” the rooms—for a reading session, a dance exercise or a very special kind of meal.

Tamam Shud will be accompanied by the third volume of the new Digressions series of interviews with artists. The series is produced by La Ferme du Buisson Centre for Contemporary Art in partnership with Captures Editions.

A coproduction with Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw.

Related program

Dinner by poems
Reserve your dinner on the engraved table in the middle of the show, contact: +33 (0)1 64 62 77 77 

Dance Room
December 17, 4–7pm
Dance class with eyes closed 

Dance Room
January 20, 4–8pm
Dance class with eyes closed 

There is no time…
February 17, 6pm
Guided tour in the dark by the artist