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An exhibition of new works
by Gérard Mermoz
held at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford:
12 June 2009- 12 January 2010
From Object to Situations
Responding to the ethnographic collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and to the international debate about culture and cultures * prompted by the recent creation of the Musée du Quai Branly, in Paris, Gérard Mermoz reinterpret the Cabinet of Curiosities in a contemporary vein, to challenge the ways we display, look at and interpret objects in museums.
This is achieved by departing from the scientific taxonomy of museum display and by setting the objects into narrative situations which transform them from captive artefacts into living object-signs.
By contrast MUSEO-graphies presents museum objects in formats first reminiscent of the still-life genre (Warpu.Head), then veering towards the style of minimalist museum display (Four Heads), with a narrative dimension which prevents the objects from being turned into captive exhibits.
'Good Day Mr. Darwin' features an emblematic encounter between young Darwin and the proverbial ape, amidst a crowd of human and animal figurines from different part of the world, including Europe.
Modern critical re-enactment of the (in)famous 'FAMILY OF MAN' exhibition (1955), it presents its members as if suddenly landed there, gathering their wits and assuming their identities, before making a first move towards each other/an 'Other'...
The installation operate a shift in the status of the figurines from 'captive artefacts' to 'actors' in a fictional re-enactment of a historic 'dénouement'.
* R. Benkirane & E. Deuber Ziegler (ed.), Culture & Cultures, Musé d'Ethnographie de Genève, 2007
(to be continued)
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