The False Promise of Convenience sculpture and hanging installation in the solos exhibition Project [Analysis] has also been shown; during Art Basel Miami Beach – Art Loves Design; in the bunker under Alexanderplatz, part of the Paradise exhibition; and Art League Houston, Texas, USA.
Spinello Gallery (Liquid Blue), Miami, USA
Project [Analysis]
“Les yeux des enfants ont des bouches” — The eyes of the children have mouths
-Jean-Paul Sartre
When you enter her studio, you have the feeling you are in an advanced research laboratory, but in fact you have just entered the immaculate world of Josefina Posch. Around you the scattered figures are both attractive and disturbing, referring to the body and the organic, and yet they strike you – between uneasiness and fascination – even though they are never nearly identifiable: prostheses, casts, ex-votos or pagan idols? Should you come closer to these figures you will start to feel a kind of intimacy, some familiarity settling in. You feel like touching, stroking what the pieces are made of; you expect them to move, which they sometimes do – they even “speak”. Slowly you are in the grip of fascination, taken by the aesthetic quality of her all-white works: a desire of perfection or eternity? But beyond sensuality, if you come even closer, you understand that Josefina’s point is essentially mental, and that she is appealing to your innermost feeling. It is about flesh, but above all the “pulsions”, urges that animate flesh, about the insatiable hunger of being, the insatisfaction or the search for a true communication. The world is beautiful, but is it actually reachable? In order to apprehend this experience, there are hands, sometimes with mouths; the language of hands, motions of tenderness or of anger; there are latex gloves, surgical protections, barrier of the skin against all aggressions, that can be found in many works as a reminder of the fear/or the incommunicability of the beings. Omnipresent too are the IV, like as many puzzling organic-looking feeding devices that seem to be alive, and willing to grow and swell inexorably. Liquids, teats, breasts, and some times small animals are obviously treated as symbols, and through the particular cluster that composes her aestheticism, Josefina reveals our intimate urges; our often convulsive will to exist is expressed by these figures ironically and paradoxically attractive and repulsive. “Les yeux des enfants ont des bouches”, together with our hunger – like the small animals we still are- is Josefina’s true message and one of her fields of research and expression.
By Jean-Christophe Paolini, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, from French by Yann Battenfort Vice Consul de France, Miami.
Sculpturespace, NY , Röda Sten Art Center & Konstepidemin, Göteborg, Sweden
In my Secret Life – Det Stora Vidunderliga and Read Me
For the exhibition Read Me, Josefina Posch cast the red rock (that the site has taken its name from) in latex, inflated it, and exhibited it as if it was “breathing” by controlling the air inflow.
The exhibition Read Me was initiated by Valand (HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design) and Röda Sten Art Center to act both as a documentation of the Valand School of Fine Arts Fellow´s year long practice and to introduce the ongoing program to a wider audience outside of the university and art circles. Continuing with their interest in alternative solutions to traditional forms first explored in their Eat Me, Drink Me seminar and later in their publication Read Me, the fellows created the exhibition of the same name for the Cathedral at Röda Sten. Shifting the focus from object oriented formats, the exhibition is instead centered around a free reference library composed of 100 publications selected by the fellows. Visitors are invited to take part in the fellow´s creative process by reading the publications that have inspired and influenced them — and are offered the option to photocopy and take with them, free of charge, any interesting passages from the material. The publications are placed on a large table surrounded by comfortable seating, framed by large, hanging photographic prints from the fellow´s individual projects. This arrangement allows visitors to switch their attention between the publications and the large printed works on display, encouraging a deeper understanding of the fellow´s creative process and the meaning of independent study. An artist´s work is in constant change, negotiation and development, but is even more so during a concentrated period such as a Fellowship. Therefore this exhibition will also change and develop during its run. Works might be added or deducted, sounds might be discovered, food might be served, and screenings, lectures and performances might take place. All this may happen announced or unannounced and may be collectively or independently conceived. When the exhibition closes, the space will not have the same presence as it did when it opened. Some of the changes you might be able to see and some of the changes might take place within (just like during a fellowship).
To combine food and art to inspire understanding and stimulate dialog was previously explored by the Fellows in their seminar Eat me, Drink Me. For the opening reception of their Read Me exhibition at Röda Sten in Gothenburg a Swedish version of the Michelangelo Pistoletto Love Difference Ice Cream will be served, as an introduction of Josefina Posch collaboration with Love Difference Pastries, project promoted by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, and an open invitation to become directly involved with the project. The objective of the non-profit Love Difference association is to develop creative projects for stimulating dialogue between people from different cultural, political and religious backgrounds, and to construct a solid network between those who wish to meet and resolve social issues through art and creativity. www.lovedifference.org
Text excerpt from the catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Read Me, Röda Sten Art Center, Göteborg, Sweden with Valand Art Academy at University of Gothenburg Fellows Artists: Josefina Posch, Amanda Herman and Oscar Lara, Curator: Adnan Yildiz
