“Nuances #2” at Théâtre, Scène nationale de Macôn, Macôn

“Nuances #2” by Ismaïl Bahri, Bruno Silva, and Andréa Spartà, curated by Magalie Meunier, at Théâtre, Scène nationale de Macôn, Macôn, 05/10/2024 – 06/12/2024.

Exhibition Text:
The Nuances programme continues in its second phase. In addition to the architectural interventions of Elise Legal and Guillaume Perez, the work of Ismaïl Bahri, Bruno Silva, and Andréa Spartà will be on view as soon as you enter the Theatre. The film series Revers 2, 4 et 5 (2017) by artist Ismaïl Bahri is a catalyst for the Nuances project. On the screen, a man crumples and uncrumples a magazine page: the glossy paper, initially a shiny image, becomes a grey rag. We witness the erasure of colour and, through this simple gesture, the destruction of the image. Symbolically, this modest action carries a much deeper meaning: to erase the image is to destroy the world it embodies.

Opposite, in the ticket office, one of the collages of Bruno Silva’s Insomniacs (Laundry) series is on display. In the Theatre, a dozen or so of these collages, which combine bed linen with stunned, constantly open eyes, are on display. As observers and the observed, we are invited to explore the spaces of the Theatre in search of the places at the edges that host them, from the dressing rooms to the control room, via the under-stage, the Salle des Fresques and the entrance to the Petit Théâtre.

Upstairs, in the Espace Cabaret, the vibrant silhouettes of Andréa Spartà’s luminous sculptures appear. They are accompanied by delicate drawings of fruits that seem to spy on us, evoking mourners with exaggerated tears. The way in which these works and their elements manifest themselves to our senses is like a phenomenon: an atmosphere, a flow of energy, The Weather. Something is at play here, perceptible more through our sensations than through our own sense of sight. Backstage, phenomenon, in-between, latency and disappearance abound in Nuances #2. It’s a question of a moment of shift, leading from one side of the nuance to the other. You either believe it or you don’t, you go along or you don’t. Shall we continue?