Darren Almond – Céleste Boursier – Mougenot – Petros Chrisostomou – Panos kokkinias – Dean monogenis – Vik Muniz – Philippe Ramette – Denis Savary.
Xippas gallery is pleased to announce Vertigo, a new exhibition gathering works from several international artists related to this theme.

The title refers to the fear of empty, wide spaces, disappearance, dangerous situations, transformation, or even punishment. More than just a paralyzing psychological reaction, vertigo can also serve as the basis for a new reflection on objects, the body, architecture and landscapes, as well as on our myths and references.

Represented by a wide range of various works, Darren Almond, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Petros Chrisostomou, Panos Kokkinias, Dean Monogenis, Vik Muniz, Philippe Ramette and Denis Savary all exploit this theme by different means such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and audio installation.

Darren Almond, born in 1971 in Wigan UK, works and lives in London. He is an artist and a traveller. In each of his works, he transmits and redefines his own notions of time, space, duration and collective memory. In his point of view, time contracts and dilates to become something malleable. Inspired by the concept of geographical borders and the importance of reaching them, the artist goes to remote places to capture the point where space, time and history cross. Associated since 1997 with the Young British Artists, he has been for 10 years the subject of important solo shows, included one at the Zurich Kunsthalle in Switzerland in 2001. Nominated in 2005 for the Turner Prize, he was among the finalists for the Pictet Prize in 2009.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, born in 1961 in Nice France, works and lives in Sète. His works are to be considered as those of a musician. From the most diverse objects or situations, he extracts a musical potential and extends the notion of scores to the various configurations of the materials and media he uses, thus generating so-called living sounds. His installation videodrones was exposed from February to April 2012 at the Collège des Bernardins. From last September until the 17th of March, his installation from hear to ear is on display at the Centquatre. His work is also exposed at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York and at the Biennial of Montevideo.

Petros Chrisostomou was born, lives and works in London. Most of time he photographs small-scale, ordinary ephemeral objects in architectural models that he constructs himself. He then arranges them, dramatically employing theatrical lighting and staging conventions. With the alteration of scale and reversal of the relation between object and environment, between imaginary and real space, his photographs challenge the viewer’s visual certainties. The illusionary effect he achieves highlights the artist’s playful approach, which fluctuates between mimicry of the real world and construction of a surrealistic reality.

Panos Kokkinias was born, lives and works in Athens. His photographs evoke the human condition in all its fragility and uncertainties. His landscapes are actually metaphors of mental landscapes. Shapes and familiar spaces are used as the realistic backgrounds of narratives. The camera is used as a viewer of the invisible: it transcribes the latent possibilities present in all things, as if the past and future events were written in people and spaces. The obsession for details, the strong colors and the sharp outlines are the necessary means to stimulate the imagination of the beholder.

Dean Monogenis was born, lives and works in New York. Working both freehand and with the aid of stencils, his work generates images of incongruity by exposing the awkward and inevitable relationship between nature and development. The resulting images question the logical placement of the industrial within the natural environment. Monogenis has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions, including a group exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He has also been an artist in residence at both the CCA Andratx Art Centre in Mallorca, Spain and at the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University in Pleasantville NY.

Vik Muniz, born in São Paulo, works and lives in New York and São Paulo. The materials of thread, jam, chocolate, ketchup, dust, toys, pigments, sugar, and puzzles are as varied as they are incongruent. The artist transforms these materials to reconstruct images that haunt collective memory, often taken from art history or the media. In 2011, the Oscar nominated movie Waste Land explains the work Vik Muniz created with catadores, scavengers in the world’s largest garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro. Since 1998, numerous international solo shows have been consecrated to him. In 2001, he represented the Brazilian Pavilion in the 49th Biennial of Venice. More recently, his work was shown at the Museum Colecçaõ Berardo in Lisbon in 2011 and at the Collection Lambert in Avignon in 2012.

Philippe Ramette, born in 1961, works and lives in Paris. He has been developing a body of work evolving around the conception and the realization of objects in their relation to the body or, more precisely, objects expressing the reflexive dimension of the body. These pieces are often instruments or devices designed to experience physically what should only be a mental process. His works are presented in great institutions in France and abroad. The Mamco in Geneva consecrated him a personal retrospective in 2008 called Gardons nos illusions.

Denis Savary, born in 1981, works and lives in Lausanne and Paris. He is hard to pin down as he resists all classification and categories: He is at once a sculptor, a videographer, a photographer, an illustrator, a collector, an art historian and a curator. In his work, decompartmentalization takes place at the level of the medium, as well as through genres, references and collaborations. Resident at the Palais de Tokyo in 2007, he won several prizes: Prize of the Foundation René Liechti for the Art, Swiss Federal Prize of Art, Ernest Manganel Prize and Foundation Leenaards Prize. In 2011 he received the Cultural Prize for Visual Arts of the Vaud Foundation for Culture. Since 2002, he has had numerous exhibitions in Switzerland as well as abroad: Musée Jénisch in 2007 and Bern Kunsthalle in 2012.