Becoming Animal by Petra Feriancová and Nicolás Lamas at Tenderpixel, London
Petra Feriancova
Nicolas Lamas
Becoming Animal
Petra Feriancova and Nicolas Lamas
Curated by Borbála Soós
Tenderpixel, London
May 16 – June 30, 2018
“…each multiplicity is already composed of heterogeneous terms in symbiosis, and that a multiplicity is continually transforming itself into a string of other multiplicities, according to its thresholds and doors. For example, the Wolf-Man’s pack of wolves also becomes a swarm of bees, and a field of anuses, and a collection of small holes and tiny ulcerations (the theme of contagion): all these heterogeneous elements compose “the” multiplicity of symbiosis and becoming.“(1)
These two interrelated solo exhibition look at our current times as a moment when complex systems and ecologies are more and more vulnerable, and in fact quickly falling apart. They consider instances of accelerated entropy as moments when transformations happen. While the decaying structures bring with them dangers and unpredictability, they also provide many opportunities for other beings to more intensely interact with each other. It is a period when becoming gains importance also as a radical way of caring for each other and surviving in new forms. This is under the understanding that we are all connected, in fact, made of the same. Our bodies are the site of nature in the past present and the future, full of histories of cross-contamination and symbiotic relations. We consist of many different beings for which we continually provide as hosts, moreover transform ourselves into each other. If evolution includes any veritable becomings, it is in the domain of symbioses that bring into play beings of totally different scales and kingdoms, with no possible filiation…(2). On the far side, we find becoming -elementary, -cellular, -molecular, and even becoming-imperceptible…(3)
Becoming can entail mimicry, taking on certain characteristics or dissolving our boundaries in the desire to be one with, assimilated into the surroundings. Ultimately however, becoming is as much about a way of seeing (point of view) as being seen. Instead of imitating a form of an animal, one has to embody a way of its existence, including speed, capacities, powers and relationality. Becoming is a matter of unlearning physical and emotional habits and learning to take on new ones that enlarge the scope of one’s relationship and responses to the world.(4)
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1.) Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus. (Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible…), Continuum, London, 2014
2 – 3.) Ibid.
4.) Christoph Cox. Of Humans, Animals and Monsters, In: Animals. Documents of Contemporary Art, Edited by Filipa Ramos, Whitechapel Gallery and MIT Press, 2016
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BIOS
Petra Feriancová (b 1977 Bratislava, Slovakia) lives and works in Bratislava SK and Milan IT. She was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava SK, which she left for the Accademia delle Belle Arti, Roma IT, graduating in 2003. She holds a PhD since 2016 from the Department of Intermedia and Multimedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, SK.
In 2013, she represented Slovakia and the Czech Republic at the 55th Biennial of Venice with the project titled An Order of Things. In 2011 she was a resident at ISCP, New York US, and in 2010, she was awarded the Oskar Cepan Prize for young visual artists organised by the FCS Foundation for a Civil Society.
Selected solo exhibitions include Systems, Individuals and Measuring Tools, Bòlit Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona, SP; Survivals, Relics, Souvenirs, Apoteka, Dignano, Croatia HR; An Exhibition on Doubt, MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro IT; Politics of Life, (from the Archive of Kveta Fulierová), amt _ project, Bratislava SK (all 2016); ArtVerona, Verona, Italy, IT; Vulnerable, Yet Everlasting, Viltin Gallery, OFF-Biennale Budapest HU (2015); Things that Happen, and Things that are Done. On Beginnings and Matter, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples IT (2014); Every Day has a Noon, amt_project, Bratislava SK (2014); Birds, Myths and Tusks, Frieze Frame London UK (2013); Still the Same Place, (with Zbyněk Baladrán), Czech and Slovak Pavilion, Venice Biennale IT (2013); ARCO, Madrid SP (2013); A Study of the Secondary Plan, Dumb, The House Of Arts, Brno CZ (2012); A Report on the Time Spending, Jiri Svestka, Berlin DE (2012); Postsriptum to Childe Harold’s Pilgrimge, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava SK (2011) and Theory of a City or the Possibilities of an A4, ISCP, New York US (2011).
Selected group exhibitions from recent years include I Am the Mouth. Works from Central and Eastern European Artists from Art Collection Telekom, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb CR (2018); Utopian Display: Props and Tools, FM Centro per l’arte contemporanea, Milano IT; Pompei @ Madre, Materia archeologica, MADRE, Naples IT; Revolving Truth, Symposium, Królikarnia / National Museum in Warsaw PL; Temporary Encounters, Galerija Galzenica, Galerija Apoteka, Galežnici, Velika Gorica Zagreb CR; PÓŁPRAWDA | HALF–TRUTH, Królikarnia / National Museum in Warsaw PL; Mushrooms on the Ruins, Nogueras Blanchard, Madrid, ES; Július Koller Symposium, MUMOK, Vienna AT; Pyeong Chang Biennale. The Five Moons: Return of the Nameless and Unknown KR (all 2017); Playgrounds, Garage Museum, Moscow RU; Sitting Together, Tranzit.sk, Bratislava, SK (curated by Zsuzsa Láslo); Coated in Pre-Existence, Elisabeth Xi Bauer, The Cob Gallery, London UK; Cities and (Velo) Cities, De Markten, Brussels BG; Miart, amt _ project and On Directing Air, amt _ project, Milano IT (all 2016).
Nicolás Lamas (b 1980, Lima, Peru) lives and works in Belgium. He studied at the HISK, Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent BE 2013-2014 and holds a BA in Fine Arts, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Barcelona, ES since 2005 and a BA in Fine Arts, Facultad de Artes Plásticas en la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima PE since 2002.
Recent solo shows are The form of decay, P/////AKT, Amsterdam NL; Artissima, with Sabot, Turin IT; Before disappearing, 019, Design Museum Ghent BE; Ocaso, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima PE; Cuánto del espacio es espacio? Salón, Madrid ES; Three chapters of a meaningless story, Tripla, Bologna IT; Ephemeral conditions, Marion de Canniére, Antwerp BE (all 2017); Todo objeto es un espacio temporal, Espai 13, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona ES; Loss of symmetry, Loods 12, Wetteren BE; The structure of the wild, Brand New Gallery, Milan IT; Dysfunctional links, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels BE; Art Brussels BE; An apparent chasm among things, ARCO, Madrid. ES (all 2016); Potential remains, DASH, Kortrijk BE; To contain is not to possess, Lokaal 01, Antwerp BE; Without form or particular order, Lokaal 01, Antwerp BE; Dynamic exchange between fragments, Art Rotterdam (Intersections) NL (all 2015); The value of formlessness, SABOT, Cluj-Napoca RO; Configuraciones, Galería Lucía de la Puente. Lima PE (both 2014); Reference points, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels BE (2013); La inconsistencia de lo visible, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima PE; Espacio de contingencia, NNM, Live broadcast residence-Act #5, Lima PE; Data entrópica, ICPNA, Lima PE (all 2012); Backlight: la naturaleza como espectáculo, Galería L’imaginaire – AF, Lima PE and Desencuadre y superficie. Galería Lucía de la Puente. Lima PE (2011).
Selected group shows from recent years are 20 cm from the ground, L21 Gallery, Mallorca ES; Private choices, Centrale for Contemporary Art. Brussels BE; Option to the death of freedom, Casemore Kirkeby, San Francisco, US; W.W.O.O.F.I.N.G. Vie D’ange, Montreal CA; A throw of the dice will never abolish the chance, La Borie, Limoge FR; Legado y divergencia, ICPNA, Lima PE; The walk, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels BE; Duck full of ants, (duo project with Juan Pablo Plazas), Second Room, Antwerp, BE ; Notes on our equilibrium, CAB Art Center. Brussels BE; Du verb a la comunication, Museé Carré d’Art, Mimes FR; Próxima parada. Artistas peruanos en la colección Hochschild, Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid ES; Little planet pavilion, Coperativa Arte Contemporaneo, Rome IT (all 2017); Ejercicios topológicos, Galería José de la Fuente. Santander ES; Figura complexus, Trafó Gallery, Budapest HU; Performing spaces, EVN Collection, Maria Enzersdorf AT; Not really really,The Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection, Brussels B and Ladera oeste, Guadalajara MX (all 2016);