Fragments urbains / Le Centquatre-Paris
“Fragments urbains” (urban fragments, in English), Vhils’ solo exhibition at the Le Centquatre cultural institution in Paris, fell in line with the body of work the artist has been developing over the years, which has been mainly focused on reflecting on the dominant model of globalised development and the nature of contemporary urban societies. In this scope, it has been looking into the impact that this model has been having on the planet and its resources and on shaping people’s lives and identities around the world. It has also been looking into the intense process of cultural homogenisation it has generated and the resulting clash between global and local realities. Vhils’ process focuses on carving into the layers of material elements disposed of by the city, removing part of the most recent ones, and bringing to the surface something that speaks, in symbolic terms, of our essence as human beings living in these large global cities of the 21st century, guided by these processes of development.
The exhibition occupied six rooms of the institution, each featuring a single body of works in a particular medium (including an installation with slow-motion videos, an installation with videos of wall-carvings with explosives, an installation with carved wooden doors, an installation with carved billboard structures, an installation with a large-scale diorama composition in styrofoam, and an installation with a light wall). These were arranged around the central patio which featured a large-scale installation reflecting on the debris produced by the modern city, voicing the artist’s interest in how the growing homogenisation of the material reality is making us increasingly alike, eroding pre-existent cultural differences and local specificities.
Fragments urbains
solo exhibition
Le Centquatre-Paris, Paris, France
19 May – 29 July 2018