Josefina Anjou & Antonin Giroud-Delorme / News from Nowhere and the Atopia of Now
Duo Show curated by Jules van den Langenberg
April 21, 2023 till May 21, 2023
Arti Et Amicitiae, Rokin 112, 1012 LB Amsterdam - The Netherlands.
based in each of the hometowns of the artists, stockholm and amsterdam, the duo show news from nowhere and the atopia of now is developed by correspondence via zoom and a material exchange via post. the outcome is an immersive scenography, communal effort by both artists and curator jules van den langenberg.
the exhibitions are named after the novel news from nowhere, or an epoch of rest by william morris. this soft science-fiction points out how its socialism would entail not only the abolition of private property but also of the divisions between art, life, and work. in the story, the narrator awakens in a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production. he explores his environment, a house which has no limit of exposed natural elements to its exterior. inside there are handcrafted accents in stone and wood. the outdoors is built-in to the indoors through overlapping architectural features. this book has become a conversation piece and starting point for the artists and curator. it offered a utopian alternative for the forthcoming industrial era. news from nowhere and the atopia of now suggests instead an atopian state, a fragmented place reminicient of home, of at once the future and the past. by imagining a topia, neither better nor worse, anjou and giroud-delorme are referring back to the history of the two exhibiting locations while at the same time grasping at contemporary contingencies.
the duo show takes place in two parts, at artist associ-ations arti et amicitiae in amsterdam and skf / konstnärshuset in stockholm . the selected locations have a similar spatial outlook and organization, with many arts and crafts related references in their buildings that can also be found in the bodies of work of the two emerging artists.
the works deal with agility and adaptability. Anjou is introducing paintings consisting of separate panels, giving them a modular yet architectural aspect. while giroud-delorme is bringing in pipes that visually merge with the internal infrastructure of the different sites.
the shows are in almost identical rooms with similar woodworked interiors, the artists stage new and existing works in a site specific manner. josefina anjou’s paintings offer a view into imaginary landscapes where the factual and the wonderful merge. her paintings are made partly using airbrushing techniques and trompe-l’oeil effects, accompanied with self-built frames. antonin giroud-delorme taps into material culture, attempting to embody his take on territories like death and desire by using grotesque imagery combined to a poetic assemblage of materials such as copper, plaster, glass and recollected symbols. his domestic pipe sculptures have a performative quality as they act and react on the exhibition space architecture and on the expectations visitors have of the built environment.
the works are installed separately as well as overlapping each other, reimagining the interior with the duo inhabiting the room. spread over several walls and the central floor, a whimsical household is accumulated with panel paintings, pipe sculptures and a furniture piece from each of the artist associations interiors that is intervened with and embedded in the show.
news from nowhere and the atopia of now takes place at arti et amicitiae in amsterdam from april 21 until may 21 and in skf / konstnärshuset in stockholm from august 17 until september 16. the exhibitions in amsterdam and stockholm are seemingly identical but differentiate through the environmental gestures of the two artists, individually and collaboratively.