A Family of Thoughts, Empty Hands

Py & Verde

Publication

Sponsored by Avatar, the duo is hosted for 3 months as part of the crossed residencies between Méduse and TANK (Marseille) with the 66th session of Cooperation Franco-Quebec.

Geraldine Py and Roberto Verde’s project was born from the desire to gather around the same table the artists, writers, choreographers and filmmakers who inspire the duet and form their family of thoughts. While unable to make this wonderful meal happen, they went to meet these people, in the fall 2015, biking through the roads of France, Switzerland and Italy, on a 2300 kilometers journey over one month. At Avatar, the duet is closing the first chapter of this project, creating a tribute in the form of a radio work. Les mains vides invites the listener to explore archives. Stories of expected or unexpected encounters are accompanied by sound recordings of a lecture by Alessandro Baricco and a reading of the novel Novecento by Alessandro Baricco, by the melody of the Swiss cows bells, the sounds of a pyrotechnic action by the artist Roman Signer, extracts of Ettore Scola’s films, the discovery of the squeaky mechanical sounds of a bicycle wheel’s harmonics, broken breaths, an Italian song hummed in a steep hill, caffetteria ambiances in Turin, etc.

From June 29 to July 29, 2018, Avatar is presenting “Les mains vides”, a radio work by Py & Verde, in collaboration with l’Œil de Poisson.

Opening on June 29, 6 pm | L’Œil de Poisson (Québec City)

Exhibition from June 29 to July 29, 2018, Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 pm | L’Œil de Poisson (Québec City)

Géraldine Py (1986, Belfort, France) and Roberto Verde (1986, Jesi, Italy) met at the School of Fine Arts in Marseille in the workshop of Anita Molinero. Py & Verde started working as a duet in 2008. They participated in several solo and collective exhibitions in Europe, especially in art centers la Friche Belle de Mai, Mains d’Oeuvres, le Fresnoy, la Villa Arson, le Quartier, in France; the PAV in Italy, Argos, Les Brasseurs, in Belgium; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana in Slovenia. Their performances and videos have been programmed at the Hors Pistes festival at the Centre Georges Pompidou, at the Palais de Tokyo as part of the 2016 Nuit Blanche Paris, and at FRAC Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In 2017, they shot a film with Lafayette Anticipations and presented a performance at L’entrepôt Lafayette as part of the Pop up Truck # 2. At Avatar (Québec City) in 2018, they finalized a radio project, initiated in 2016 in Euphonia (France). They are working in parallel on Cabaret, deuxième édition to be presented in Brussels in autumn 2018. Py & Verde live and work in Brussels.

 

“Sometimes strange coincidences emerge. Among the most intriguing, there is the similarity between the works, while they are the product of a variety of conscious organisms living in different situations and latitudes, occasionally isolated from society and detached from the flow of information that it generates. Our collaboration is the result of this type of meeting, between two individuals who out of luck find themselves in the same workshop of an art school, who mistakenly exchange their sketchbooks and then discover a copy of their ideas.” – Py & Verde

” Géraldine Py and Roberto Verde develop adaptive scenarios, which accept unpredictability as a mode of operation. Through films, installations or sculptures, the artists explore empirical phenomena, focusing on the animal world and the inert world of materials. All these entropic adventures are the milestones of the thought of a whole, greater than the sum of its parts […] ” – Sandra Adam-Couralet

Thanks to TANK, Lucien Bertolina (Euphonia), Michela Sacchetto, Anna Olszewska and Karen Detton (Le Quartier), Céline Chazalviel and Justin Sanchez (The other house), Avatar, Méduse, Caroline Salaün, Mélanie Bédard and l’Œil de Poisson.

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