31/1/2008
Lovett/Codagnone
September, Berlin
Walk in silence
In their video works, performances, and photo projects, the New York artists John
Lovett and Alessandro Codagnone combine elements of homosexual SM subculture
with literary, cinematic, and discursive quotations circling around the latently violent
dynamic of lust, dominance, subjugation, and resistance. Important theoretical and
aesthetic influences on the artists’ work include Fassbinder’s anti-theater, Antonin
Artaud’s “Theater of Cruelty,” and the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Like the solo show
Interruption of a Course of Action, which just ended at the P.S. 1 in New York, their
most recent exhibition project, WALK IN SILENCE at SEPTEMBER, reflects the current
political situation in the U.S. and addresses issues such as social isolation,
disorientation, and powerlessness.
At the center of WALK IN SILENCE is the video installation Because My Body Can
Never Be Touched from 2007. An actor roams the empty streets of New York’s East
Side at night and gives a performance with no listeners. In the bone-chilling cold he
recites with a megaphone the chapter La recherche de la fécalité (The Pursuit of
Fecality) from Artaud’s radio play Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu (To Have
Done with the Judgment of God), written for French radio in 1947. The blockade of
the voice, articulation and being heard, played a fundamental role in Artaud’s
thought. For him, one’s suppression was visible through a silent cry and, in a certain
respect, only hearable through silence. It was less a matter of words than of sounds,
which were supposed to painfully, touch the spectators.
Artaud’s idea of a theater of deficiency and crisis has a contemporary parallel in
Lovett/Codagnone’s video installation. The Lower East Side is a perfect example of the
progressive gentrification of Manhattan. The camera follows the solitary actor, who
wanders through a commercialized, cleaned-up district in which autonomous
freedoms have nearly disappeared, in which there is no longer a response. The fact
that he can only cry out his unlistened-to protest in quotes is like a symbolic farewell to
repressed sub-cultures. At the same time, this “re-enactment” is rooted in an authentic,
contemporary feeling about life. Artaud’s fecal hymn of praise to “dirty” corporeality turns offensively against the suppression of aggressions and wishes which can no
longer be articulated in the face of increasing economic and political control.
The “suppressed” voice is an ambivalent leitmotif of WALK IN SILENCE. So is the
sculpture To Breathe In Always Even Though It Kills (2006), for which
Lovett/Codagnone have two megaphones facing each other, which can be
interpreted as a symbol of blocked or disrupted understanding: the two speakers
drown each other out. Simultaneously, the fetish character of the work, which is
painted black and provided with leather straps, is obvious. The night-dark,
monochrome U.S. flag and the black, light-absorbing mirror on which
Lovett/Codagnone reflect text fragments, also contradict the usual communications
models and interpretations. They function like an alphabet for a negative visual
language driven by subversive, autistic energy: the desire for one’s own downfall.
John Lovett, born in 1962, and Alessandro Codagnone, born in 1967, have worked
together since 1995. Their exhibitions and performances have been shown at
numerous international institutions and galleries, including ICA, Boston; Museo
Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, 2007; Participant Inc, New York, 2007; Museum
Ludwig, Cologne, 2006; Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, 2006, 2001, and1997;
Artists Space, New York, 2005; De Appel Centre For Contemporary Art, Amsterdam,
2005; Performa 05, Performance Biennale, 2005; Platform Garanti Contemporary
Art Center, Istanbul, 2004; Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, 2003;
TRANS>Area, New York, 2003; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2002; Latvian Centre for
Contemporary Art (LCCA), Riga, Latvia, 2001; Centre D’art Contemporain de Basse-
Normandie, France, 2001; Galerie Praz Delavallade, Paris, 2001; Brent Sikkema,
New York, 2001; Thread Waxing Space, New York, 2000; Centro D’arte
Contemporanea Ticino, 1999/2001; Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes, 1998; Centro
Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, 1998.
Lovett/Codagnone are represented by Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan, and West of
Rome, Los Angeles.
Charta published a monograph on Lovett/Codagnone in 2006.
September
Charlottenstrasse 1 - Berlin
Free admission