Rue des Fabriques 43

Erasing the boundary between life and art, the project may be seen to reflect Lacan’s idea that our existence is defined by intimacy turning into extimacy.

But these words should not lead us astray into viewing the project as some kind of an artist reality show. It is the embodiment of an idea of a community and the association as the manner of operation. This, however, turns out to be a perpetual experiment, a singular assemblage where the individual works play an independent role, with the emerging new connections also prompting a complementary moment and thereby enacting the essence of lasting cohabitation—their mutual dependence. 

The works by Ištvan Išt Huzjan and Thibaut Espiau consist of minimum actions and interventions. The former focuses on his role within the group, as his frequent absence affects the relationship with his roommates and becomes the subject of a series of performative acts pointing to the importance of the moment of separation, and the latter humorously deals with external disturbances, e.g. damaged bathroom door or the irritating noise of clanging dishes. Roberto Verde, as well, is interested in combining spatial and objective contexts with the reality of human lives. His creative practice, which draws on everyday experiences, human inventions or minor specific features of the human condition and links them to his own experience, now zooms in on his roommates. Similarly, but in the medium of photography, Antoine Meyer reveals his interest in the real world. The snippets of everyday routine create a bridge between the architecture, furniture, and people who live in it and use it. Here, he focuses on the landlord and his interaction with the place, based on the facts stated in the property inventory form. Tina Javornik translates the complementary role of the wall as an element of separation and integration of the living organism into an interactive object through which the visitors are obliged to enter. Any shift of the partition draws the audience into an endless circle of actions and reactions that throw a symbolic light on the enigmatic essence of human relations. The design of Kasia Kowalska’s works stems from the definition of space, defined both by personal relations and physical boundaries. Location mapping is juxtaposed by a video tutorial on how to make your own kefir and a periodical containing the revered images chosen by the roommates. Their phantasy voyages are depicted in Mélanie Vincent’s drawings on exhibition windows. Through the poetic depiction of the Slovenian Mountain Hiking Trail, whose visibility is determined by the quantity of daylight, she conveys the awareness of the limitations of human eyesight. Playing with the established world of images, on the other hand, marks the work of Ernesto Sartori. Exploration possibilities of contemporary portraiture lead him to reduce physical form to wooden objects and replace physiognomy with colour, into which he inscribes the subject’s personality traits and mood.