Tous Cannibales at La Maison Rouge, Paris

“We are all cannibals. The simplest way to identify with another is still to eat them.” (Claude Lévi-Strauss, La Repubblica, 1993). From February 12th to May 15th, La Maison Rouge in Paris / France is staging an exhibition on anthropophagy and its representations in contemporary visual art. The show brings together works by young artists who address the cruelty of anthropophagy from a critical standpoint and with a certain delicacy.

Tous Cannibales has been curated by Jeanette Zwingenberger. She has chosen pieces for the most part by young artists working independently of each other on the concept of incorporation. A body of contemporary works (photography, video, installation, sculpture, drawing and painting) finds echoes in a historic perspective (illustrations, illuminated texts, engravings and ritual objects). Together, they show how the theme of anthropophagy has persisted and evolved through time and place. On display are works by Makoto Aida, Pilar Albarracin, Gilles Barbier, Michaël Borremans, Norbert Bisky, Patty Chang, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Will Cotton, Wim Delvoye, Erik Dietman, Marcel Dzama, James Ensor, Renato Garza Cervera, Francisco de Goya, J.J. Grandville, Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Pieter Hugo, Melissa Ichiuji, John Isaacs, Oda Jaune, Michel Journiac, Fernand Khnopff, Frédérique Loutz, Saverio Lucariello, Alberto Martini, Philippe Mayaux, Patrizio Di Massimo, Théo Mercier, Yasumasa Morimura, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, ílvaro Oyarzíºn, Giov. Battista Podesta, Odilon Redon, Félicien Rops, Bettina Reims, Toshio Saeki, Cindy Sherman, Dana Schutz, Jana Sterbak, Adriana Varejí¢o, Joel-Peter Witkin, Ralf Ziervogel, Jérí´me Zonder.

The exhibition is structured in chapters whose themes are the man-eating outsider or non-human; the relationship with others and construction of an individual and group identity through a dual movement of incorporation and rejection; the body as an organism capable of transformation, and which feeds on and feeds others; eroticism and all-consuming passion; violence and horror; ritual and sacrifice; and images from childhood, derived from tales and legends.

Tous Cannibales at La Maison Rouge, Paris. Opening reception, February 11, 2011. Video by Christophe Ecoffet.

PS: The exhibition will continue in Berlin, from May 28th to September 18th, at Me Collectors Room Berlin, recently opened by the collector Thomas Olbricht.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.

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