20/2/2006
Steve Parrino
Mamco, Geneve
Retrospective 1977 - 2004. Condensation. Mille et Trois Plateaux, 5th Episode. For close to three decades, his work has represented a vital link to the (supposedly obsolete) idea of “radicality." Back in the early eighties, when the word on the street pronounced painting dead, rather than join the flock of mourners, Parrino (1958-2005, USA) took a shot at necrophilia. In his hands, appropriationist strategies became a kind of black ops technique, a means to convulsively incarnate the historical breakdown of avant-gardes narratives.
Retrospective 1977 - 2004
Curated by Fabrice Stroun
For close to three decades, the work of Steven Parrino has represented a vital link to the (supposedly obsolete) idea of “radicality." Back in the early eighties, when the word on the street pronounced painting dead, rather than join the flock of mourners, Parrino (1958-2005, USA) took a shot at necrophilia. In his hands, appropriationist strategies became a kind of black ops technique, a means to convulsively incarnate the historical breakdown of avant-gardes narratives.
Not to provide a distanced, critically laden image of ideological collapse, but to produce a raw, visual materiali-
zation of its effects. Neither nostalgic nor cynical, his “misshapen" and gutted monochrome paintings, performance-based films, photo-collages and works on paper made with such loaded materials as engine enamel, blood and glitter, owe more to Stella’s Black Paintings’ “what you see is what you see" credo than to any post-pop tradition of cultural intervention.
And just not any Frank Stella’s Black Paintings, but specifically: Arbeit macht frei (1958) and Die Fahne Hoch (1959). As far as Parrino was concerned, these works were not called “black" for nothing.
In the artist’s words: “Radicality comes from context and not necessarily form. The forms are
radical in memory, by way of continuing the once radical, through extensions of its history. The
avant-garde leaves a wake and, through mannerist force, continues forward. Even on the run,
we sometime look over our shoulders, approaching art with intuition rather than strategy. Art
of this kind is more cult than culture".
Three years in the making, this retrospective gathers over 200 works, including paintings,
sculptures, drawings, photographs and films. This exhibition will include photo-documentation
of the artist’s earliest performances and monochrome paintings, both generically titled DISRUP-
TION, as well as his early attacks on then-current late avant-garde dogmas of “Radical
Painting," with images of comic books superheroes literally wrecking Malevitch’s Black Square
(1915.) The retrospective then moves on to works shown between 1983-1988 at Nature Morte
and Metro Pictures, two galleries who then represented the most “vanguard" art made in New
York, including Parrino’s first shaped and “misshaped" canvasses- monochrome paintings
wrenched from their stretchers, before being stretched back, distorted, in a supremely frozen
gesture, suggesting, in Robert’s Nickas’ words, “the crumpled body of a car after an accident
(…) a clear sign of violence being served cold." This section of the exhibition will also provide
a large survey of the artist’s first foray into “figurative" drawings and collages, using motifs
appropriated from biker, no-wave, punk rock, and comic book culture. Contrarily to the works
of his Californian counterparts (Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, etc.,), these dra-
wings do not unearth the repressed, psychosexual impulses of American culture, as much as
physically embody its infinitely pliable, one-dimensional surface- the “dumb" and glamorous
non-sites of underground radicality.
Moving into the Nineties, this exhibition includes the artist’s large scale, walk-in, installations
(Hell’s Gate Shifter, 1997), full-scale comicbook project (Exit/Dark Matter, 1998-1999) and fur-
ther radicalization of earlier series- such as, for example, his repainting of previously multi-colo-red canvasses in either black or silver, further collapsing the conceptual space that separates Stella’s Black Paintings from Warhol’s Disaster’s series. A large selection of works made in the last five years shows the artist recent moves from video to 16 mm film, and, most significantly,
from painting into the realm of sculpture, and will include models for yet unrealized large-scale
sci-fi inspired earthworks such as Study for a model of the Universe to be placed in the
Forbidden Zone (2003). Finally, this retrospective will include prime examples of the many col-
laborations Parrino initiated throughout his career, including works made with Olivier Mosset,
Jutta Koether, as well as with younger artists. (F.S.)
An inclusive large monographic catalogue, co-edited by Mamco, Geneva, Les presses du re'el,
Dijon, and JRP-Ringier, Zurich, is scheduled for the end of the year 2006.
True to its "work in progress" credo, Mamco continues the Mille et trois plateaux exhibition cycle
it launched in 2004 and presents, from 21 February to 7 May 2006, Condensations, a new epi-
sode structured around three large monographic displays, together with varied other proposi-
tions. A retrospective of the work of the American artist Steven Parrino will be the exhibition's
highlight as it is the first ever devoted to this artist. Claude Rutault, a French artist intimately
associated with the museum, will be shown on the fourth floor. The most current phase of his
work, (p)re'parations, illustrates the extent of his reflexions over the act of painting per se.
Different continent, different approach with the works of Ivory Coast-born Fre'de'ric Bruly
Bouabre'. His postcard-size drawings symbolize a miniature encyclopedic knowledge of the
world. Shifting (2004), a significant video realized by Alex Hanniman is also included in our new
cycle of exhibitions, as are works by Agnieszka Kurant, opening a new chapter of her Exposition
qui n'existe pas (the exhibition that does not exist), incorporating works by Stefan Bruggeman,
Bertrand Lavier, Gabriel Lester and Ste'phane Dafflon. Condensations marks also the reope-
ning of L'Appartement, the exhibition area which duplicates one of the rooms of the French “art
dealer" Ghislain Mollet-Vie'ville's home.
Image: installation at Team Gallery, New York City, 2005
Opening 21 February at 6.00 pm
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday, 12am - 6pm; Saturday - Sunday 11am - 6.pm