Down to a sunless sea
April, 2019
Arondit, Paris
A proposal by Ekaterina Shcherbakova, Julia Borderie & Éloïse Le Gallo
With the artists: Théodora Barat, Julia Borderie & Éloïse Le Gallo, Thomas Geiger, Philémon Hervet & Victor Prokhorov, Anna Holveck, Géraldine Longueville, Dimitri Mallet, Pieter van der Schaaf
Curator: Ekaterina Shcherbakova
The exhibition Down to a sunless sea starts evolving from the hypothesis that a river flows under the building where the Arondit art space is situated. The two floors of the space form a metaphorical entrance into the inaccessible underground where the stream curves, being a main subject of the show. The project takes as its very starting point a meeting between the artists Julia Borderie and Eloise Le Gallo, and a curator, Ekaterina Shcherbakova. Since 2017, they have been collaborating on a long-term research and art project, Points-Bascule, which considers the multifaceted matter of water as an element establishing the relationships between people and their environment. The exhibition is the result of numerous exchanges between the participating artists and curator, along with a collaboration with the energy healer Sophie Rusniok, the archeologist Miguel Biard, and the stone mason Xavier Questaiux.
Down to a sunless sea is conceptualized as a site-specific, collectively constructed dispositif for individual daydreaming. A proposal to move one’s consciousness to the sensation and experience of the ‘Other’, not necessarily graspable and comprehensible intellectually, it evokes the phenomenon of proprioception or a « sixth sense » that is related to a sensation of position, movement, and effort of an animal’s body in a given situation and context. The hypnogogic experience of the exhibition is built on physical and conceptual operations of appropriation, defragmentation, infiltration, sedimentation, and accumulation, as defined by the artistic proposals.
With a dedication to all the waters of the world, Down to a sunless sea encourages us to face the world as we find it, while guiding us though different relationships and scenarios emergent of the subject of liquid. Acting as a narrative binder, water enables us to navigate through the system of stories, matters, and scales.
Photo credits: Salim Santa Lucia
Poem for the exhibition
think of them
think of them
think about
All the waters of the world
Which will
wash you
drown
dissolve you
But if you put yourself in this place
you can find yourself
In the eye of the storm
Shivering from head to toe
Dina, Gafilo or Diwa
We protect you from them
With our words, our languages
It is an eco-paleo-psycho-electro-cosmo-logical discourse
We are here to reverse the flow of rivers, open dams
Whistle Frank Ocean in your ear
We drill
We dig
We dig
All night long
What we want is a rain that falls from the earth to the sky
What we want is to let the river of rivers make its way
What we want is to create images and scenes of fog
What we want is to survive
In a mixture of slush and urine
We'll lock you in the bathroom
of a milky way
Or in your head
As usual, your thoughts begin to wander
You should see what you see and nothing else
You will better understand the underground rivers
And non-verbal thoughts
From the depths to the spit
From the tide to the large jacuzzi
From Transparency of Thought to Confusion
And if you don't wanna be a metaphor
You should take a sip
And swallow
And become the river yourself
And take an elevator or a plane
Or a truck
By digging without stopping
Join other rivers
Exchange liquids
Ekaterina Shcherbakova
April, 2019
Arondit, Paris
A proposal by Ekaterina Shcherbakova, Julia Borderie & Éloïse Le Gallo
With the artists: Théodora Barat, Julia Borderie & Éloïse Le Gallo, Thomas Geiger, Philémon Hervet & Victor Prokhorov, Anna Holveck, Géraldine Longueville, Dimitri Mallet, Pieter van der Schaaf
Curator: Ekaterina Shcherbakova
The exhibition Down to a sunless sea starts evolving from the hypothesis that a river flows under the building where the Arondit art space is situated. The two floors of the space form a metaphorical entrance into the inaccessible underground where the stream curves, being a main subject of the show. The project takes as its very starting point a meeting between the artists Julia Borderie and Eloise Le Gallo, and a curator, Ekaterina Shcherbakova. Since 2017, they have been collaborating on a long-term research and art project, Points-Bascule, which considers the multifaceted matter of water as an element establishing the relationships between people and their environment. The exhibition is the result of numerous exchanges between the participating artists and curator, along with a collaboration with the energy healer Sophie Rusniok, the archeologist Miguel Biard, and the stone mason Xavier Questaiux.
Down to a sunless sea is conceptualized as a site-specific, collectively constructed dispositif for individual daydreaming. A proposal to move one’s consciousness to the sensation and experience of the ‘Other’, not necessarily graspable and comprehensible intellectually, it evokes the phenomenon of proprioception or a « sixth sense » that is related to a sensation of position, movement, and effort of an animal’s body in a given situation and context. The hypnogogic experience of the exhibition is built on physical and conceptual operations of appropriation, defragmentation, infiltration, sedimentation, and accumulation, as defined by the artistic proposals.
With a dedication to all the waters of the world, Down to a sunless sea encourages us to face the world as we find it, while guiding us though different relationships and scenarios emergent of the subject of liquid. Acting as a narrative binder, water enables us to navigate through the system of stories, matters, and scales.
Photo credits: Salim Santa Lucia
Poem for the exhibition
think of them
think of them
think about
All the waters of the world
Which will
wash you
drown
dissolve you
But if you put yourself in this place
you can find yourself
In the eye of the storm
Shivering from head to toe
Dina, Gafilo or Diwa
We protect you from them
With our words, our languages
It is an eco-paleo-psycho-electro-cosmo-logical discourse
We are here to reverse the flow of rivers, open dams
Whistle Frank Ocean in your ear
We drill
We dig
We dig
All night long
What we want is a rain that falls from the earth to the sky
What we want is to let the river of rivers make its way
What we want is to create images and scenes of fog
What we want is to survive
In a mixture of slush and urine
We'll lock you in the bathroom
of a milky way
Or in your head
As usual, your thoughts begin to wander
You should see what you see and nothing else
You will better understand the underground rivers
And non-verbal thoughts
From the depths to the spit
From the tide to the large jacuzzi
From Transparency of Thought to Confusion
And if you don't wanna be a metaphor
You should take a sip
And swallow
And become the river yourself
And take an elevator or a plane
Or a truck
By digging without stopping
Join other rivers
Exchange liquids
Ekaterina Shcherbakova
