An arena looms in the high, historic hall of the Hamburger Bahnhof. Church chants fill the hall, which looks like a large empty square, street noise and barking dogs can also be heard. Only a few people pass by, go around the arena, slip through a curtain into the pink interior and take a seat on the steps. The arena forms the framework for Pauline Curnier Jardin’s film “Fat to Ashes”, the center of the exhibition of the same name. On the big screen in the middle, scenes are played out that stand in contrast to the – also corona-related – emptiness of the hall.
The approximately 20-minute demonstration begins with images of gold-colored angel figures and crowds of people moving through a place. Clapping, singing, crush, gold and glitter: images and noises that testify to excitement and enthusiasm patter on the audience. It is the festival in honor of St. Agatha, which Pauline Curnier Jardin, who lives in Rome and Berlin, held at the beginning of 2020. In honor of the patron saint, processions with statues of saints, flowers and huge candles pass through the streets of the Sicilian city of Catania every year at the beginning of February. Agatha’s reliquary is carried through the streets on a sedan chair. According to legend, a Roman prefect had her breasts cut off because she refused his advances. Eventually she died on a bed of glowing coals. Agatha is considered the patron saint, among other things, for rape victims and breast cancer patients.
“Fat to Ashes” fits into the context of Jardin’s preoccupation with rituals, says the curator Kristina Schrei. “But it was also clear that she wanted to do a new job.” For the exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, the artist created the film and the foam arena in which it will be presented. Jardin’s wobbly pictures captured on 16 mm and Super 8 film look like they were from a bygone era, although they were only taken about a year ago. The artist has cut together the celebrations in honor of the tormented Agatha with pictures of the Cologne Carnival and the ritual slaughter of a pig in an Italian mountain village. In Cologne, too, crowds of people present themselves, this time with glittering faces. People who kiss, celebrate together – before Corona paralyzed Europe. The film recordings were made shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic. “It’s almost a historical artifact,” says curator Kristina Schrei. Pauline Curnier Jardin actually wanted to film Easter processions, but that never happened.
Almonds rolled in fat and sugar, blood or wax flowing over the floor next to exuberant, intoxicating celebrations: sometimes disgust for people and their rituals creeps in while watching. It is unclear whether the nausea comes from the cut up pig or the shaky pictures. Looking away is still difficult. Because what Pauline Curnier Jardin brings together here is as repulsive as it is fascinating. Just the closeness of people to one another and the permanent crowd seem surreal and somehow exciting these days. Perhaps a little melancholy will find its way, paired with the desire to practice a little excess again after months of restraint.
Pauline Curnier Jardin works with installations, performances, film and drawings. The artist, born in Marseille in 1980, often uses organic and other sensual materials such as meat, skin, wax, fat or ashes. Jardin won the National Gallery Prize in 2019 and the Villa Romana Prize in Florence in 2021. From 2019 to 2020 she was a scholarship holder of the Villa Medici in Rome. Her film “Fat to Ashes” forms the center of the exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, but there is more to see around the edges: large candles and small pictures are attached to the pillars of the hall, transforming the sound installation with clacking shoes and a barking dog the pillars in the hall in a street alignment. The candles on the pillars come from Sicily and were blessed there, reports the curator. Drawings, some of which seem childlike, show motifs that point more to an adult life: a person with high pumps in the park, a man with an erect penis or a woman who leans towards a car window and sticks out her buttocks.
The works were created during a project by the artist with sex workers. “It was a direct response to the lockdown in Rome. She asked herself who suffers most from it, «says the curator. As a group that was already socially marginalized, sex workers lost their livelihood through the lockdown. Pauline Curnier Jardin, together with the photographer and sex worker Alexandra Lopez and the architect and scientist Serena Olcuire, organized a workshop for sex workers from Colombia living in Rome. “She invited women to draw their everyday work,” says Kristina Schrei. In return, the women got as much money as they would have earned as sex workers during that time. The “Feel Good Cooperative”, a cooperative of sex workers, emerged from the workshop. “Feel Good” refers to the work of women who take care of the well-being of other people. Her graphic works have been exhibited several times and are also sold. “The proceeds go to the cooperative,” says Kristina Schrei. The fact that the pictures are also shown in a museum gives the women visibility, says the curator. A visibility that they would otherwise hardly get in an art context.
Foam, wax, stone: Pauline Curnier Jardin works with breaks in materiality. The building reminds some of them of something edible. The Hamburger Bahnhof is showing a film on the website about the exhibition, which was closed again soon after the opening due to corona. Now you have the opportunity again to experience the sensual impressions of the materials, the interplay of sound, images and space on site.
Pauline Curnier Jardin “Fat to Ashes” until September 19 at Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin.
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