JOANA VASCONCELOS | THE ENCHANTED FOREST

It feels like a sylvan mirage. In La Patinoire Royale Bach’s nave, lights glow in what look like the branches and along the sturdy trunks of a clearing full of magical trees. Floating in air, they tend toward the ground as though yearning for roots. In the multi-colored splendor of this layered labyrinth, small bullseyes of crochet look like the rings of Seussical flora. The wizardry of elemental alchemy is at once disorienting and enchanting. Cloth turns timber; sequin or ruffle become leaf; ceiling turns canopy.
The massive installation, which fills the nave, comprises some of the key elements of Vasconcelos' practice, recombined into a fully immersive piece on the same wavelength. It includes piers, like the striated columns of Siena’s cathedral, and soft Romanesque arches of textile with hanging drops like multi-colored tears. Requiring extraordinary architectural engineering, it is, as Vasconcelos has often claimed, a hybrid of the world of nature and the realm of technology. The viewer teeters for a moment on the threshold of immersive dissolution. But path-finding follows.
The feminist project of pushing the object off of the wall or pedestal and into the space of the viewer is a gesture of radicality but also of care and generosity. It can be shared. Other bodies can be absorbed into the work. The effect is one of inviting people in.
It is important that it happens in the dark. The nave, usually so light, becomes an envelope of darkness, as in one of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room installations. Thousands of LED lights twinkle, like jewels scattered in the dark woods, possibly pointing the way toward enchantment. But also, to the rich terrain of dualities: light/dark, artifice/nature, among other dichotomies.

And when she alludes to a magical dimension in discussing this body of work, Vasconcelos is describing a transformative utopia. For the length of the exhibition, the gallery exists in the realm of fantasy or Sci-Fi. Ultimately, she makes art entirely on her terms, but invites you in to wonder. Look at yourself, then. Turn toward the dark. Is your warm disorientation lostness or path-finding? She’s the jeweller, but the interpretation is up to you.

Excerpt of a text by Eve Hill-Agnus.

Photographs by GRAYSC.
Artists
JOANA VASCONCELOS
Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese visual artist with a career spanning over 30 years and a wide variety of media. Known for her monumental sculptures and immersive installations, she decontextualises everyday objects and updates the arts and crafts concept for the 21st century, establishing a dialogue between the private sphere and public space, popular heritage and refined culture. She questions the status of women, consumer society and collective identity with humour and irony.

Vasconcelos has exhibited three times at the Venice Biennale. In 2005, her installation The Bride drew international acclaim. In 2013 she represented Portugal with the first ever floating pavilion. In 2012 she was the first woman and youngest artist to exhibit at the Palace of Versailles, and her exhibition there drew a record 1.6 million visitors.