FITZ

From April 6, 2016 to May 21, 2016
Opening on Wednesday April 6, 2016
« We go to the mountains to experience this feeling again and again. And also to feel how human beings must have felt a hundred thousand years ago, before civilization, governments, social structures, religions, and all the rules that you must follow to be a human. »
Reinhold Messner

« This is the story of Augustus’ journey…»  This sentence which applies to both the opening dynamic and track record of the story that forms Alexandre Silberstein’s exhibition could be the foreword, the comment, the first words or simply the metaphor that sums up the how and the why of a novel by Jules Vernes. Augustus leaves and many adventures will come his way. Ambushes, encounters and just as many challenges will form an initiatory trip in the traditional as well as spiritual sense of the term. The great travel stories are brought in. If Augustus could meet Ulysses, de Tamino or even Knud Rassmussen, he could also become Hans Castorp who lost himself in the ether of the Magic Mountain, cut off from time and reality before getting tangled up again in a world of violence. Above all, he could of course remind us of Reinhold Messner, the Italien alpinist portrayed by Werner Herzog in his 1984 documentary called “The Dark Glow of the Mountains”.

Two keys may be of some help in order to better understand the stakes of the story. The personal dimension is certainly not exempt from some echo in “Fitz” (a word coming from old French and expressing a filiation, therefore an origin) and here the artist, who is himself a climbing enthusiast,  gives a narrative vision of intimate and existential problems which fall within the sphere of self-discovery and the surpassing of oneself. Alexandre Silberstein alludes to adventure novels which – through surpassing and self-awareness – embody the particular genre that is initiatory novels.

Admittedly the layout of the exhibition recounts or demonstrates an adventure, but did it really happen? Should we talk about it in the past or in the future? Is Augustus already back? Has he even existed? The deconstruction of the story also emerges from Alexandre Silberstein’s participation and commitment to the industry of film post-production. Between fashion, film and communication, his artistic curiosity led him to regularly take part in the building of studio sets or shootings, thus providing him with the codes of the making of a story. Here he seems to be drawing up the inventory of the elements essential to the success of this adventure. The objects that are laid out on the floor make up a story before our eyes – and here Herzog’s influence takes on its full meaning – represent accessories just as much as the photographs could be those of heroes or people aspiring to be part of the cast. Fitz deconstructs the script of a super-production and unveils a sort of treasure hunt where visitors can become its heroes.

M.L

Alexandre Silberstein lives and works in Paris where he was born in 1988. He comes from the Atelier Bustamante, part of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts of Paris where he graduated in 2015 (DNSAP diploma) and won the Nespresso Vidéo prize in 2014.

DIFFRACTION, a guest of the STUDIO at the galerie laurent mueller The galerie laurent mueller has chosen to entrust Matthieu Lelièvre (DIFFRACTION) with the commissioning of the STUDIO in the early part of 2016 for a cycle of three successive exhibitions. Originating in his knowledge of the young generation of artists, the commissioner has chosen to invite several artists who recently graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts (National School of Fine Arts) of Paris.