Amateur

Amateur — Press Release Works by Marie Lueder & Thomas Pellerey Grogan Curated by Tenko Nakajima & Joseph Bourgois Opening Event: 27.02.2020: 6pm-9pm (+ performance) Closing Day: 28.02.2020: 11am-5pm Address: 8 Rue Saint-Bon, 75004 Paris — Project Description Amateur : celui qui aime. Celui qui n’agit que par amour. Amateur: those who love. Those who only act through love. –Paul Vialar, Le Sport (1963) Amateur, a word that originates from the French word ‘amour’, and more specifically the act of loving, has been the starting point of Lueder’s new series of garments through which she develops new models of masculinity structured around sensitivity and vulnerability. Each piece of the collection has been tailored around a male figure: around their identity, their routine, their passions. Lueder first conducted interviews with male friends and collected footage documenting their personal routines. Based on this data, she was interested in working with leather, nylon, and denim as material to create a sense of collective, uniting their personas in a quest for a new concept of masculinity, while retaining individual nuance. The garments emerging from Lueder’s research, led to the creation of an additional performative layer, willing to activate the clothing through ceremonial rituals and postures. Therefore, Lueder invited artist Thomas Pellerey Grogan to intervene in the conception of these rituals. Pellerey Grogan’s work consists of a series of sculptural devices aiming to push the human body into meditative states and self-reflexions about the past, future, and present. Corporeal interaction with a physical structure, transitioning from poses dictated by the installation’s architecture, blending with a build environment, and becoming a scaffold, oneself, for the construction of a non-singular, metamorphic identity. The figure operates as a passive agent, looking into the past through a series of images and texts projected on the wall, seeking hidden instructions for how to deal with the future. Viewing and reviewing moments of the mundane. The sculptural devices combine elements of industrial aesthetics, Eastern European outdoor gym culture, and the techno club scene. It both disciplines and caresses the performer: indicating something of the modern era which promises progress while also challenging the ability to truly let go. The performance held on Thursday, 27th of February by Jonny Davies, who has previously worked with artist Anne Imhof, unites the collaboration of Lueder and Pellerey Grogan, embodying the search for a new male being. — Credits Performer: Jonny Davies Performance text: Marie Lueder & Thomas P. Grogan Project text: Georgina Hill Documentation: Marvin Leuvrey & Georgina Hill — Biographies: Marie Lueder is a German artist and fashion designer based in London. She works as both a narrator and sculptor: researching the ontology of masculinity through garments which work as figurative armour for the wearer and display the struggle and potential shielding one might incur in the contemporary (reality) fiction. Lueder harnesses performance as a means of speculating on new role models and possible male identities; the performative space offering a chance for fluidity and imagination. She develops olfactory art and uses various media in collaborative and conversational configurations. In the last year, Lueder created ‘A Mahnmal’ (a monument that remembers a tragic event, warning that the event should not be allowed to occur again) for the male species she hopes to become human, and continues creating accessible mantras for this journey. There is an imperative to embrace the potentiality of amateurism. That is to say, in relation to gender, bodies, idols, professionalism, strength, vulnerability, and emotions, so that one might be able to restructure and regenerate. Recent and upcoming projects include: stage outfit Yves Tumor World tour (2020), sculptural garments for Matthis Gasser Artist (2020), London Fashion Week (UK 2020), performance “black hole sun”, Berlin Art Week, Gruppe Magazine Launch (DE 2019), “Cry Uncial” show at Karlin Studios, Futura Gallery, Prague (CZ 2019), solo-show “Old-Town Road”, INOX International, Copenhagen (DE 2019), group show “Nourishment Project”, Guest Projects, London (UK 2019), “Mahnmal”, 3236rls, London (UK 2019), performing “Sale”, PS120, Berlin (DE 2019), performing “Sale”, APA, Brussels Art Gallery weekend, Brussels (BE 2018), ?? Jupiter Woods, London (UK 2018), 2nd prize for perfume concept “ParVape” presented to Thierry Mugler and Clarins Paris for IFF @RCA, Paris (FR 2018), “A Walk without a Cat”, 180 the Strand, London (UK 2018). www.luederluederlueder.com @marie.lueder Thomas Pellerey Grogan is a French-British artist and researcher based in London. With a background in Industrial and Speculative Design, he has developed an artistic practice that is driven by ethnographic research. His practice investigates current and future social issues around emerging technologies and the politics of image making and consumption through various artistic outputs like sculpture, installation, video and performance. The visual language in Pellerey Grogan’s work is strongly influenced by corporate branding, manufacturing, and product hacking – processes aiming to favor the trade of objects or services. Recent exhibitions include Piqûre-Lunaire, La Becque (CH 2019), WrongxTalks, The Wrong Biennale (online 2019), Here, We, Go, Mansions of the Future (UK 2019), LOW TEXT - 5. Commercials, Flutgraben 3, Berlin (DE 2019), Frankenstein Exhibition, Baltan Laboratories (NL 2018), Dreamworks, Limbo Gallery (UK 2018). Residencies taken at SPACE London (UK 2020 - forthcoming), La Becque Résidence d’Artistes (CH 2019), FACT Liverpool (UK 2018), Strelka Institute (RU 2018), AerEz (NL 2017). www.thomas-grogan.com @thomgrog