Ange Leccia: Disappear

About

Recognised as a pioneering figure of French Video Art, the artist has in conversation with the gallery created a body of commissioned work that follows the two past exhibitions with Mireille Kassar and Michele Ciacciofera. Disappear marks the end of a trilogy of exhibitions, exploring the Mediterranean area as land of culture, conflict and memory.

On view are three videos and four printed stills of the moving image on aluminium. La Mer, on view in our office space, is Leccia’s most known work and has been shown in multiple and diverse exhibition spaces, each time accommodating the given space. The two films on view in our main exhibition space have never been screened before and as La Mer, they respond to the Mediterranean. This time the artist responds to the region’s violent political and societal conflicts.

The viewer is not able to see without being watched. Focussing on the young generation of woman, Disappear (’21) takes you on a visual journey from Palmyra’s archaeological site, visited and taped by the artist in 2001, now after years of war in Syria and fatal destruction by ISIS, almost diminished, to the Twin Towers, before 9/11.

The sequences are layered with moving images of portraits depicting young woman, who are seen in a dreamy suspense, looking back at the viewer. Both films share a combining and layering of sequences, accompanied by sound that shifts from calm to intense.

Playing on the contrast between adolescent woman and scenes relating to war and destruction, Leccia illustrates a strange disparity. When travelling to Syria and Egypt, he was captivated by the many young people living in war zones. They live in transition from childhood to adulthood, their innocence compromised by conflicts so resolute, they become part of a person’s essence. For Leccia, the state of being an adolescent teenager is similar to the nature of an artist. Being free from prejudice thought, in a tabula rasa state of mind, is essential for the artists practice. The adversity between manifestation and destruction becomes apparent through the artist’s gaze on the young generation, deeply affected by the conflicts in the Middle East. In Wardream (’18) the disparity is diminished when a narrative is added to the sequences. The sequences seem to overlap, showing the young woman appearing in both films, being shot.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Senesi Contemporanea, featuring an essay by Fabien Danesi.

Ange Leccia (born 19 April 1952) is a contemporary French painter, photographer and film-maker. He works in Paris primarily with photography and video.
Leccia was born in Minerbio, in Corsica, and studied Fine Art. Initially he was engaged in both painting and photography, but as time passed he devoted himself more to photography and video as his chosen media. His work has been shown, among others, at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), at the Guggenheim in New York, at Documenta in Kassel, at Skulptur Projekte in Münster, at the Venice Biennale, etc. In 2013, MAC/VAL organised a solo show of his work.

He is represented by the gallery Almine Rech and Jousse Entreprise. Since 2011, he has been responsible for Pavillon Neuflize OBC, the Palais de Tokyo’s creative lab. Leccia is also lecturer at the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Cergy-Pontoise (ENSAPC).

Leccia’s work can be found in prominent collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including the L'amour Louvre' Louvre Lens; Fond National d’Art Contemporain; Centre Georges Pompidou; Le Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; France Fondation Cartier; Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations; Fondation NSM Vie;


Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Strasbourg;Contemporain de la Ville de Lyon; Musée d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Marseille; FRAC Rhône Alpes; FRAC Corse;
FRAC Pays de la Loire; FRAC Midi-Pyrennes; FRAC Alsace; FRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais;
Guggenheim New York; Seibu Museum Tokyo, Japan; Musée de la Ville d’Hiroshima, Japan; KIASMA, Musée d’Art Contemporain Helshinki; MUKA Anvers, Belgium;

Musée de Nuremberg, Germany; The Progressive Collection, Cleveland;

For all press inquiries, contact

Ginevra Russo/ Carla Schöffel
+44 2074936179 info@senesicontemporanea.co.uk