ARCHIVE EVENT 50.
03.11.2023
LOCATION: MOLT, Tempelhofer Ufer 1A, BERLIN
FORMAT: SOLO Exhibition
CURATOR: Ryo Koike
ARTISTS:
Ryo Koike
performance by Dafni Krazoud
TEMPEST COMPRISES 18 WORKS BY RYO KOIKE DATING BACK TO THIS YEAR’S BEGINNING, THE MAIN BODY OF WORK, THOUGH, WAS PRODUCED DURING THE LAST TWO MONTHS––MARKING A QUASI-OBSESSIONAL PERIOD DURING WHICH THE ARTIST LEFT HIS STUDIO ONLY TO SLEEP, IF AT ALL. THE CLIMACTIC INTENSITY OF THIS DUSK-TO-DUSK CONFRONTATION WITH THE CANVAS CARRIES OUT THE SHOW’S TITLE, POURING A NEW, AND RECURRING, SET OF INTERNAL OBJECTS INTO COMPOSITIONS CHARGED WITH SYMBOLISM.
THE LARGE-SCALE WORK TEMPEST DEPICTS A LUMINOUSLY GREEN AND HEAVILY ORNAMENTAL FAÇADE BELOW DENSE CLOUDS PROMISING DISASTROUS RAINFALLS. THE ARCHITECTURE’S PORTAL IS SHUT AND IMPENETRABLE, HIGHLIGHTING BOTH KOIKE’S AESTHETIC INQUIRY OF SURFACE AND DÉCOR, AND THE PERILOUS LOCATION OF THE PAINTER––AS WELL AS THE AUDIENCE, FOR THAT MATTER––SHUT OUT, UNINVITED, WITHOUT SHELTER FROM LIFE-THREATENING STORMS. THE WORK RADIATES CALM ANTICIPATION OF CHAOS, THE SEEMINGLY INFINITE MOMENT OF SILENCE BEFORE THE FIRST DROP FALLS. KOIKE COMPARED THE UNCONTROLLABLE ESSENCE OF SUCH ANTICIPATION TO THE VASTNESS INTO WHICH INSOMNIA CONFINES THE SLEEP-HUNGRY INSOMNIAC TO WHOM ESCAPED THE INTIMACY OF SOFTLY SLIPPING INTO A STATE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS. SOONER OR LATER, THE INSOMNIAC WILL SNOOZE, AND THE STORM WILL HOWL, YET RISING ANTICIPATION DEVOURS ALL HOPE OF ESCAPE AS THE MOON SETS.
WITH THE NIGHT SKY HOVERING ABOVE HALF OF THIS EARTH, JUST HOW MANY OF ITS INHABITANTS ARE ASLEEP, UNCONSCIOUS, PASSED OUT AT THIS VERY MOMENT? TERRESTRIAL OHNMACHT––MEANING ‘POWERLESSNESS,’ BUT ALSO ‘IMPOTENCE,’ ‘HELPLESSNESS,’ AND ‘BLACKOUT’––BESPEAKS BOTH OUR INABILITY TO DETERMINE THE MOMENT WE FALL ASLEEP, AND THE INEVITABILITY OF SLEEP FOR SURVIVAL, UNCONSCIOUSNESS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS, PASSING OUT FOR PASSING ON. THIS DOUBLE-ENTENDRE IS INVOKED BY KOIKE’S PAINTINGS THAT BEAR TRACES OF A COLLECTIVE FEVERISH DREAM IN THEIR FAMILIARITY, AS NARRATIVE TROPES, ALLEGORICAL FIGURES, AND SYMBOLIC MOTIFS OCCUR ABUNDANTLY. YET, THEY DEFY SINGULAR INTERPRETATION, DRAWING US INTO ENIGMATIC TERRAIN.
DAFNI KRAZOUDI
ROUSING HER OWN EMBODIED SPIRITS, DAFNI KRAZOUDI’S EXPRESSIVE WORKS EXPLORE IDEAS AROUND PSYCHOLOGY, METAPHYSICS AND WHAT MOTIVATES HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. RELATING THE SPONTANEOUS TO THE HISTORIC, AND THE SACRED TO THE ANARCHISTIC, SHE OFTEN FINDS HERSELF TREMBLING BETWEEN SIDES AND PERSPECTIVES. SWORN TO RECONCILE AND BOUND TO THE INSEPARABLE NATURE OF BODY AND MIND, KRAZOUDI ATTEMPTS TO RE-IMAGINE MEANING AND LETS IT INSTANTIATE THROUGH THE UNEXPECTED.