SCÈNES BERLINOISES (BERLIN SCENES) by Geneviève Roy at 404 | BAI

July 14 – August 14, 2023

“It is with the desire to capture some revealing fragments of Berlin and to mix in some elements of my own experience, that I developed the project “Berlin scenes”, as part of a one-month artist residency – June – July 2023 – at the Berlin Art Institute. I first walked, observed, and then photographed different domestic and urban places in the city. From these two hundred or so photographic images, a few suburban buildings emerged, which captured my curiosity, by their modest scale and their rudimentary appearance. Then, the discovery of recessed boxes in the wall of the stairwell of the Institute’s building, was the trigger for the project. The character, both modest and authentic, of these gaping holes occupying a wall of the institute immediately appealed to me, I saw the potential there to create small intimate theaters, where plots of the city could cohabit as well as underlying and personal scraps.

Through a first experiment carried out in one of these boxes located in the wall of level 2 of the building, I wanted to recreate my residency studio in the form of a model, as if this existing and empty box suddenly became the receptacle of my workspace. Then I had the idea of ​​pursuing this exploration of ​​“inhabiting the wall” of the School, with two other boxes embedded in the same wall, located on the lower floor, on level 1. So I created a second scene, this time inspired by my domestic living space in Berlin, a two-level apartment with a mezzanine; the view from my living room window was represented by digital printing on a backlit translucent panel; the same view, represented on a smaller scale and in color, is also found in the model. Suspended in this architectural space is the sculpture of Max Beckmann, which I saw at the Neue National Galerie, and which moved me greatly. The third scene is inspired by the mythical film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders; The eye of the angel Cassiel is represented there, as well as the angel Damiel, perched on the pipe located in this case, observes the magnifying glasses planted in the eye of the angel Cassiel, as if the two angels echo each other in their gazes, and where the Berlin sky appears in the background, in filigree, in a backlit case. On either side of the composition appear the fragments of the façade of the Church of Remembrance; on the ceiling, the dome of the Reishtag overlooks the stage. This more symbolic case is a tribute to the impactful work of Wenders, and to these architectural elements of Berlin with a strong symbolic charge.

With the “Berlin scenes” project, I continue my research on the built environment and its impact on our psyche. By mixing significant architectural fragments of the city with more personal domestic architectural spaces, I aspire to bring out this meeting point between the internal world of thought and the physical and tangible world in which each human being evolves and tries to find his own balance.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My fascination for the city and the look I have on the urban territory – strongly influenced by my career as an architect – are the anchors of my work, which deploys singular views of the built environment using drawing, model, and photography. More specifically, I am interested in these questions: How to read and capture these significant witnesses of existence that are the habitable spaces in which we live? Since each fragment of our memory is potentially linked to a place, how are the images of these lived, dreamed, or imagined spaces that constitute our experience constructed? In my practice, I observe the urban territory that surrounds me, as well as the domestic space that I inhabit. These environments, exterior and interior, are in my eyes inextricably linked and influence our way of being and of perceiving the world. The various places that capture my interest for their symbolic value are first photographed, sometimes drawn. Then, studies in the form of models, computerized photomontages as well as the technique of collage – digital and physical – are the foundations of hybrid compositions, combining miniature, two-dimensional digital prints, and installation. The resulting works act as revealers of the complex functioning of the mechanisms of the psyche: the images perceived, the images that we create, their constructions, their disappearances. There is, in this process of thought and creation turned towards the intimate, the desire to reconstitute facts and personal places in the most authentic way possible, while preserving in their staging’s a part of perceptual and intellectual enigma which engages the spectator and allows him to challenge his own personal universe.” (Text by courtesy of Geneviève Roy)

Originally from Quebec City (Canada), Geneviève Roy lives and works in Montreal. Along with training as an architect, she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. A master’s degree in visual and media arts (UQAM) allows the artist to deepen her research on the built environment, by questioning the issues of the physical and psychic space. A grant holder from the Canada Council for the Arts, her works have been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in Montreal, Quebec, Lyon, Winnipeg, and New York.

More information on the Geneviève Roy Website.

 404 | BAI is the display & project space of the BERLIN ART INSTITUTE. 404 is derived from the numeric designation of the building while also referring to the well-known HTTP status code: 404 Not Found, familiar from the internet.