L’Heure des sorcières

This review of “L’Heure des sorcières” at Quimper’s Le Quartier appeared on artforum.com: Mary Beth Edelson, Proposals for: Memorials to 9,000,000 Women Burned as Witches in the Christian Era, 1977, mixed media, dimensions variable. Installation view. Spread throughout four rooms, this thematic group exhibition takes as its starting point Breton myths and legends as portrayed by nineteenth-century French artists in works borrowed from the local Musée des Beaux Arts. Drawing on traditional basket-weaving techniques, ethnographic approaches, and oral histories, Paris-based artist Marie Preston’s sculpture piece Barque sorcière (Witch Boat), 2014, and accompanying fictional dialogue involving four characters—a druidess, a painter, … Continue reading L’Heure des sorcières

Schizophonia

This review appeared on artforum.com: Latifa Echakhch, Resolutions (In Progress), 2009. Installation view. The synagogue turned contemporary art center in sleepy Delme, near Metz, could not be further removed from a white cube, despite its milky-white interior and perfectly square proportions. Modeled after Berlin’s Neue Synagoge, the repurposed building has accommodated an impressive range of group and solo exhibitions over the last two decades. As number symbolism is integral to sacred Jewish architecture, it seems at once fitting and discordant that Latifa Echakhch’s Resolutions (In Progress), 2009, should greet the visitor on the threshold of this well-orchestrated and elegant show … Continue reading Schizophonia