Photo courtesy of the Jeu de Paume.
Agathe Snow, born in Corsica in 1976 and living in New York, is presented in the context of the satellite program, "Views from the top, dizziness and constellations". This project is part of a discussion devoted to Leonardo da Vinci and developed throughout the years in various exhibition venues. The work of Agathe Snow, whatever the medium - video, performance or installation - holds both the apocalyptic conclusion of a society in decline suggests that the issue, the celebration of survival and hope. Accumulations of found objects allow her to invent a new style narrative reflecting its perception of reality and its attitude towards the world. In the halls of the Jeu de Paume, the artist has created a device that connects the mezzanine and the room, so as to lay the foundations of a new world where it would be possible, "according to her own words, to dream a life more consistent , SEEN FROM ABOVE, a broader perspective. At the center of the space, a sculpture made of bales of rubber blue handballs, magnetized, adhere to metal forms. This mobile between solidity and chaos makes reference to both classicism as a more contemporary aesthetic to remind us of the teenage years the artist spent in the streets and playgrounds of the Lower East Side, with the molecular structure of DNA, as it echoes Constellations, all 49 Photocopying black and white representing Christmas balls in all their facets, meeting in the book published on the occasion of this exhibition. Next, an improvised foam prepared the ground, an American flag and a video replay just the first steps of man on the Moon Live followed in 1969 by millions of viewers. From this event, which marks the climax of the American dream, Agathe Snow takes when the current disenchantment. "Views from the top, dizziness and constellations" becomes a space for ideas and reflection in the hope of developing a new world or a renaissance is possible, "a state of mind free of any accessory superfluous, boredom, of morality and fate, a concept without a name yet to think like a time and in the future. This project refers in part to Leonardo da Vinci, in his impressive creative force that affects all areas and making it a key player in the society of his time and a visionary without limitation: painter, sculptor, founder, engineer, architect, planner, physicist, biologist, philosopher, surveyor, botanist, inventor of board games and kitchen tools, cartographer, author of treaties Optical, garden designer, interior decorator ... ...The spirit of the Renaissance embodied by Leonardo da Vinci and the observation of the degradation of society grow Agathe Snow to propose a new territory, rather than a renaissance based on empirical rationalism and the desire for total knowledge, but on awareness of the limits of our knowledge and appreciation of those things that are beyond human understanding: myths, fables and supernatural. Agathe Snow proposes renewing a new attitude that would "accomplish little by little that the wonder is back in our lives."
María Inés Rodríguez
Curator of the exhibition
Translated from the French
