October 4, 2024 – January 13, 2025
French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, Rome, Italia
Estrid Lutz, Poumon de mer, 2023, production / realisation Cirva, Marseille.
© Estrid Lutz ; photo © Cirva / Bérangère Huguet
On the ground and in the atmosphere, as both an element and a resource, water constitutes us and overflows the world. Protean in form – rain, seas, droplets, dew, streams, clouds, fog, and tears – it is the essential source of all life. Diverted, extracted, and polluted, water has now become a vital issue in the ongoing ecological crisis. But although it has been conquered, the abyssal depths remain today more mysterious than the Moon, land of dreams, inhabited by fantastic monsters.
Following the exhibition Stories of Stones (2023), Villa Medici continues its exploration of the elements with a journey around the theme of water, featuring works by around 30 internationally renowned contemporary artists. Ten of these creations have been specifically designed for the occasion.
This exhibition follows the cycle of water, from sunken civilizations to ritual practices and the troubled waters of trade routes. The hybrid figure of the siren or mermaid, by turns malevolent and protective, half woman, half animal, acts as a guide to navigate between these worlds, from the depths to the surface. Her ambivalence resonates with that of water, a space of metamorphoses, between waters of rejuvenation and of doom.
The show invites us to explore the different states of water through the artists’ eyes, from its representation to its political implications, from the commodity transformed into a resource to the metaphorical quest for its source. Diving into this liquid world opens up a host of contradictions, when tales of water’s origins intermingle with those that conjure up future times in which it threatens us with flooding and drought, and sea levels rise while rivers run dry.
Introduction / Piazzale
*Laure Prouvost (b. Croix, France, 1978)
Chapitre 1: Diving
Yiannis Maniatakos (b. Flomohori, Grèce, 1935)
Chapitre 2: Stories of pearls
Monira Al Qadiri (b. Dakar, Sénégal, 1983)
Simone Fattal (b. Damas, Syrie, 1942)
Kusukazu Uraguchi (b. Shima, Japon, 1922)
Chapitre 3: Atlantides
*Mounir Ayache (b. 1991), ancien pensionnaire
Chiyuki Sakagami (b. Hyogo, Japon, 1961)
*Himali Singh Soin (b. Inde, 1987)
Emilija Škarnulytė (b. Vilnius, Lituanie, 1987)
Aïcha Snoussi (b. Tunis, Tunisie, 1989)
Chapitre 4: Troubled waters
*Dala Nasser (b. Tyr, Liban, 1990)
*Valentin Noujaïm (b. France, 1991), ancien résident, et Maïa Tellit Hawad (b. France)
Pamela Rosenkranz (b. Uri, Suisse, 1979)
LaToya Ruby Frazier (b. Braddock, Pennsylvania, États-Unis,1982)
Bassem Saad (b. Beyrouth, Liban)
Chapitre 5: Summoning the nymphs
*Alix Boillot (b. Paris, France, 1992), ancienne pensionnaire
*Bianca Bondi (b. Johannesburg, Afrique du Sud, 1986), pensionnaire
*Gaëlle Choisne (b. Cherbourg, France, 1985)
Jumana Emil Abboud (b. Nazareth, 1971)
Klodin Erb (b. Winterthour, Suisse, 1963)
*Ariana Papademetropoulos (b. Los Angeles, Californie, États-Unis, 1990)
Chapitre 6: Tears
Raffaela Naldi Rossano (b. Naples, Italie, 1990)
Rose-Lynn Fisher (b. Minneapolis, Minnesota, États-Unis, 1955)
Chapitre 7: Becoming a drop
Younes Ben Slimane (b. Tunis, Tunisie, 1992), ancien résident
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (b. Istanbul, Turquie, 1984)
Alex Cecchetti (b. Terni, Italie, 1977)
Estrid Lutz (b. France, 1989)
Lou Masduraud (b. Montpellier, France, 1990)
*Madison Bycroft (b. Kaurna Country, Australie, 1987), ancienne pensionnaire
*artists whose pieces have been specially commissioned for the exhibition
Caroline Courrioux is head of Production of the Exhibitions and Cultural events at Villa Medici since 2021. Specializing in aesthetics and visual studies, she works on the links between contemporary art, ecofeminisms and political imaginaries. She previously supported artists and exhibition projects as production manager of the Rencontres d’Arles (France).
Sam Stourdzé is director of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici. He specializes in the contemporary image and the relationship between art, photography and cinema. He has curated numerous exhibitions and written several reference works. Formerly fellow of French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici in 2007 in the cinema section, Sam Stourdzé was director of Les Rencontres d'Arles from 2014 to 2020, after having directed the Musée de l’Élysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, between 2010 and 2014, and served as editor-in-chief of the photography magazine ELSE.
October 4, 2024 – January 13, 2025
French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici
Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1
00187 Rome, Italia
+39 06 67611
🌍 📷 French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici
📷 Estrid Lutz
📷 Jumana Emil Abboud
👉 Residencies at the Cirva: Estrid Lutz, Jumana Emil Abboud