Denis Savary: Jour blanc

Denis Savary’s practice as an artist is multifaceted. It involves drawings, videos and installations, but also staged actions and dance performances. Each exhibition is a narrative in which his pieces summon a host of references at the crossroads of science, the fine arts, zoology, and literature. He accumulates allusions to a world in which the coincidences are deliberate and the echoes infinite.

His project for CCS, which incorporates several new works, displays a particular interest in architecture, whether classical (a Greek temple) with Loggia, an installation comprising twenty mattress sculptures; Renaissance, with two fountain-sculptures inspired by the water displays in the gardens of the Villa d’Este; or popular, with Cuisine, a hanging deconstructed sculpture. The show also features Faunes, a strange half-Buddha half-doll sculpture, and the video piece Dimanche (Sunday), shot on a frozen Lake Joux (in the Canton of Vaud), the playground of a host of silhouettes lost in the vast white expanse. Maldoror, a piece done for a 2012 exhibition at Bern’s Kunsthalle, has been reconfigured into a winter version for the CCS courtyard.

CCS is also presenting Lagune, the most ambitious dance performance staged by Savary to date. Created for the centennial of the Dada movement, Lagune takes shape around The Robot King, a puppet dreamed up by Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Six dancers and a puppeteer move around a set featuring façade modules built from colored Plexiglas and black punching bags. As if pounded by the sea, this city is subjected to the action of an imaginary swell that is entirely made up of the breaststroke movements of the dancers, who together form a kind of multi-headed figure.

Performance of Lagune, March 22 and 23, 8pm

A monograph titled Denis Savary will be available in March. The book will include texts by Abraham Adams, Stéphanie Moisdon, and Jan Verwoert, an interview with the artist conducted by Samuel Gross, and an introduction by Jean-Paul Felley & Olivier Kaeser. Edition Centre culturel suisse, Paris, 200 pages, 2016

Denis Savary (born 1981) lives and works in Geneva. A graduate of ECAL in Lausanne, he took part in the Pavillon program of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. A selection of solo shows: Centre culturel suisse, Paris (2016); Mamco, Geneva (2015); artgenève, Geneva (2014); art3, Valence, France; Jean Tinguely’s Cyclop, Milly-la-Forêt; Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva (2013); Kunsthalle, Bern (2012); La Ferme du buisson, Noisiel (2010); Programmation Satellite, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2008); Musée Jenisch, Vevey (2007). Several performances: Étourneaux, Mamco (2015) and the Festival d’histoire de l’art, Fontainebleau (2014); Victorine, CCS, Paris; Les Mannequins de Corot, CCS, Paris and Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva (2010) and Le Printemps de septembre, Toulouse (2009). He works with Galerie Xippas, Paris and Geneva.

With the generous support of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and Swiss Signature.

Also on display in the courtyard gallery:

Sabian Baumann: Von Gestern bis Morgen
January 22–February 21
Opening: Friday, January 22, 6–9pm

The essence of Sabian Baumann’s approach could be summarized in these few words: normality is an exception. His/her world is made up of paradoxes, tragicomic metaphors in which lyricism, humor, and esthetic references to both learned and popular culture mix in a disparate patchwork that brings to light the intrinsically odd nature of the world. For his/her first solo show in France, Baumann is presenting at CCS a selection of recent drawings on paper, including several from the “Liebe und Traum, horizontales Paradies” series. In Baumann’s work, existential questions, fantastical visions and unbridled dreams fuse in narratives that delve into the notion of identity, the condition of being caught in time, and more generally the complexity of life.

Sabian Baumann (born 1962) lives and works in Zurich. A selection of solo shows: Centre culturel suisse, Paris (2016); Kunstmuseum, Lucern (2014); Institut für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg (2011); Kunsthalle Lugano (2010); Kunsthaus, Langenthal (2009); Les Complices, Zurich (2007). Reference work: Sabian Baumann, edition fink, Zurich, 2009. He/she works with the Mark Müller Gallery in Zurich.

Karoline Schreiber: Quelques trous du cul et un aspirateur automatique
February 26–April 3
Opening: Friday, February 26, 6–9pm

Karoline Schreiber’s work mainly revolves around drawing and painting. In her drawings, the artist has developed an intuitive method that she calls “automatic drawing” in reference to the automatic writing advocated by the Surrealists. Since 2006 she has given drawn performances—the most recent to date at MoMA PS1 for the NY Art Book Fair. For her first solo show in France, she is presenting at CCS a series of “portraits” of unknown anuses. During the opening, she will do a performance by drawing directly on the floor before a robot vacuum cleaner equipped with ballpoint pens takes over for her. It will regularly, though randomly, reactivate itself to continue drawing, right up to the end of the show.

On April 1 at 8pm, Karoline Schreiber will do a drawing performance in public, accompanied by an Electro DJ set of Anders Guggisberg

Karoline Schreiber (born 1969) lives and works in Zurich. She is a cofounder of the women artists group mit, which did performances in public spaces from 2000 to 2008. A selection of shows: Centre culturel suisse (solo), Paris; Stadtgalerie (solo), Bern (2016); Cantonale Berne Jura, Kunstmuseum Thun and Kunsthaus Interlaken (2014); Centre Pasquart, Bienne (2013). Drawing performances: NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1, New York; message salon, Rote Fabrik, Zurich; Kreuzberg Pavilion, Berlin (2015). Reference work: Karoline Schreiber, Letzte Nacht, The Green Box, Berlin, 2015

All exhibitions are curated by the CCS codirectors Jean-Paul Felley & Olivier Kaeser.