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Palais Lascaris

Still Life Nature morte, 1970–1971 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp
Still Life Nature morte, 1970–1971 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp

Palais Lascaris

2024

Shadow, reflection, echo*
When MAMAC moves into the Lascaris home

November 15 2024 – April 7 2025
Opening Thursday November 14 at 6pm

An exhibition organized by Palais Lascaris and

MAMAC Près de chez vous
Curated by Rébecca François and Elsa Puharre

With : Laurence Aëgerter, Marion Baruch, Barbara and Michael Leisgen, Natacha Lesueur, Béatrice Cussol, Liz Magor, Robert Malaval, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Dorothée Selz and Antoni Miralda

A number of drawings, photographs and sculptures from the MAMAC collections are installed in the apartments of the Palais Lascaris, culminating in an invitation to artist Laurence Aëgerter for a special commission and installation. The contemporary works installed in this baroque building steeped in history evoke the “real world and its double**”, echoing the writings of French philosopher Clément Rosset. Amidst the furniture, tapestries and musical instruments, a world of reflections, miraculous escapes and unattainable dreams unfolds.

 

Barbara and Michael Leisgen met at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied between 1963 and 1969. She was a painter, he a sculptor. In 1970, they decided to give up their respective practices and work together in photography and video. From the 1970s onwards, Barbara & Michael Leisgen’s early work was a counterpoint to the German objective photography of Düsseldorf initiated by the Bechers, aiming to privilege the conceptual over the visual. Interested in creating images that echo founding myths and classical culture, the Leisgens question the notion of mimesis and develop a plastic language in reference to nature. Their images, reminiscent of the visions of the German Romantic movement and in particular the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, feature Barbara’s body in dialogue with the landscape. More confidential, their video work experiments with the notion of mimesis, surface effects, mirrors and transparency, as well as the question of temporality – all characteristic fields of video art in the early 1970s. These works, rarely shown, underline the singularity of their conceptual, embodied and poetic approach.

Still Life Nature morte, 1970–1971 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp
Still Life Nature morte, 1970–1971 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp

Barbara et Michael Leisgen

Still Life Nature morte

Video - 10’’49 - black & white

Created in 1970–71, the video work Still Life (10: 49 min, black-and-white, audio) explores the idea and perception of nature and landscape while reflecting on the possibilities of representing them with the mediums of photography and video. Accompanied by bird calls, the video first shows a landscape through a single camera setting for minutes on end. After around seven minutes, the camera zooms backwards, the bird calls fall silent, and the setting now takes in the picture frame surrounding the landscape, revealing it to be a representation. The spectacle of nature is shown to be an illusion, the perceived video recording of the landscape turns out to be a framed representation in a living room. Still Life is a prime example of how the artist duo always seeks to reflect on the media they deploy. Juxtaposing the media of photography and video, this work plays with the aspect of time and the audio components that make the photography seem like video, and elucidates the idea that photographs and video images can never render an objective truth—but they can generate the illusion of rendering reality, and are capable of deceiving the viewer.




The Never Ending Water, 1974 - 1975 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp
The Never Ending Water, 1974 - 1975 © Barbara et Michael Leisgen/Adagp

Barbara et Michael Leisgen

The Never Ending Water

Video - 11''56 - black & white

In this video, Barbara Leisgen appears from behind, her silhouette reflected in the water. At first, she is barely recognizable amidst the waves, but as the surface flattens, the contours of the figure become increasingly clear. Barbara Leisgen moves with the motion of the flowing water. Her outstretched arms twirl, then her movements gradually slow down as the water calms. At the end of the video, all that’s left is a faint, barely visible ripple on the surface, as she peacefully positions her arms alongside her body. Here, the artist duo demonstrate the unity between nature, the body and the camera. An allusion to Greek mythology is present in the reflection of the figure in the water, in reference to Narcissus. Experimentation with surfaces, mirror effects and the exploration of transparency were characteristic of video art in the early 1970s. At the same time, Gino Di Dominicis attempted to defy nature and change its physical laws by exerting on it a potential for provocative, tragi-comic actions, such as flapping his arms to fly off the top of a hill, or obtaining a square wave on the surface of the water by throwing pebbles.