Art Seen: National
Kadist Art Foundation // Rivane Neuenschwander
Rivane Neuenschwander at Kadist Art Foundation San Francisco, March 15th, 2012.
The Kadist Art Foundation is an unique San Francisco space that collects and produces the work of artists and presents programs to promote artists’ role as cultural agents. It also develops exchanges between Kadist’s local contexts (Paris, San Francisco) and artists, curators, academics and publishers worldwide.
On March 15, in a one-night exhibition, The Kadist Foundation presented three works by Rivane Neuenschwander. First Love, an interactive installation, is based on her adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s novella First Love. Participants signed up to work with a police sketch artist to create portraits of their first love. This hour long process attempted to render the love interest’s features from memories, through the use of an F.B.I identification book and questions from the sketch artist. The final personal sketches reveal connections between the effects of romantic and criminal trauma on memory.
Paired with this were two other works: The Tenant, a video which shows a bubble floating slowly through an empty house and Mapa Mundi BR (postal), a series of postcards featuring pictures of Brazil placed on shelves. Drawing on the artist’s interest in Fluxus mail-art networks, visitors could fill out a postcard for the Foundation to mail thus disseminating images of Brazil across the world.
Rivane Neuenschwander’s “First Love,” 2005 at Kadist San Francisco. Courtesy of Rivane Neuenschwander, Inhotim Collection and Kadist Art Foundation.
Rivane Neuenschwander’s “First Love,” 2005 at Kadist San Francisco. Courtesy of Rivane Neuenschwander, Inhotim Collection and Kadist Art Foundation.
Rivane Neuenschwander’s “First Love,” 2005 at Kadist San Francisco. Courtesy of Rivane Neuenschwander, Inhotim Collection and Kadist Art Foundation.
Rivane Neuenschwander’s “First Love,” 2005 at Kadist San Francisco. Courtesy of Rivane Neuenschwander, Inhotim Collection and Kadist Art Foundation.
Tricia Van Eck is an independent curator and Artistic Director of 6018NORTH in Chicago.