 Mayer Vaisman: Untitled Turkey XXIII (blond wig in nest), 1993 mixed media, 13 x 20 x 24" (33 x 51 x 61 cm), pedestal (81 x 76 x 74 cm) Colection/Selection Thomas Bernstein, Mary Buck, Kevin Carter, Claudia Di Gallo, Thorsten Ebeling, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Michel François, Toland Grinnell, Siobhan Hapaska, Liz Larner, Marco Lehanka, Guy Limone, Charles Long, Mark Manders, Christian Marclay, Ulrich Meister, Tony Matelli, John Miller, Curtis Mitchell, Moshe Ninio, Greg O'Halloran, Maurizio Pellegrin, Saly Pepper, Gert Rappenecker, Katy Schimert, Jonathan Seliger, Jana Sterbak, Kerry Stewart, George Stoll, Rosemarie Trockel, Mayer Vaisman, Not Vital Jennifer and Filippo Fossati are pleased to announce the opening of "Colection/Selection", an exhibition of sculptures curated by Francine Benjo and Potassio Pliffi. "The act of buying is the first act of criticism" At a time when Ambroise Vollard was trying to sell works by Cezanne or the young Picasso, collectors were known as "Amateurs" (Lovers). Vollard himself explained that "to select and put together a collection requires love, not unconditioned love, but a desire and pursuit of the whole which is said to be love, with all it's chances and a certain critical decree". "Colection/Selection" at Esso Gallery reflects the idea of the collector as critic and curator but confronted from a different point of view, a side which may transforms a mere Collector into a Lover. Any person who collects develops an utopia, which is that of being able to put together a catalogue or a personal dictionary of one's vision of the surrounding world. The container, the Wunderkammern (Room od Wonders) is also an utopia, an ideal. The collected things will be placed inside a protected environment and magically abstracted from reality, the way a collection should be, in which everything far is near, within reach, and where the why and the wherefore could be seen and touched, studied, analyzed and catalogued. The spring of this united knowledge is a category that follows curiosity. Besides the extraordinary group of sculptures, the beauty of "Colection/Selection" is that it doesn't belong to any category. Now it has it's Wunderkammern - a true impulse of wonder, of discovering a new world, outside of the earth, which will oblige the collector to remake the catalogue of plants, animals, of cults, artificialia, manufactured objects and other works of art, trying to reinvent them for a different use. The marveled look on the world is still one of the high moments of knowledge, to quote again Vollard "as if the miracle is in the eyes that see and not in the things that are seen". Exhibition: April 28 - June 10, 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Sat 11am - 6pm or by appointment esso gallery 531 West 26th Street USA-New York, NY 10001 Telephone +1 212 560 9728 Fax +1 212 646 607 5480 Email info@essogallery.com www.essogallery.com |
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