Corps à Corps
Artist. Céline Condorelli
Organisation. IMA
Year: 2017
Céline Condorelli – b. 1974, Paris, France. Lives and works between London, UK and Milan, Italy.
Condorelli’s exhibition at IMA was titled Corps à Corps, roughly translating as ‘body to body’ it speaks about Condorelli’s concern for social interactions and relationships.
For Corps à Corps Condorelli utilised both the inside and outside areas of IMA. She created a case-study in what an exhibition can be by creating diverse environments which take all aspects – such as the climate or the furniture – as integral features.
For the courtyard commission, Condorelli created a public artwork in conjunction with two Brisbane-based collaborators: Dirk Yates, an architect and Pete Shields, a landscape designer. The immersive structure will remain in the courtyard for a period of three years, providing shade and seating for visitors amongst native and naturalised plants.
Condorelli is highly influenced by architecture, she holds a PhD. in the discipline from Goldsmiths College London. Through her interrogation of what an exhibition can be Condorelli builds on and extends tenants of relational aesthetics through examining communication, support and relationships between people, and between people and environments or spaces.
She works across mediums—in sculpture, film, text, performance, and installation—creating work that is consistently underlined by the concept of ‘support,’ a notion focused on community and togetherness. These ideas manifest in Condorelli’s work through interactive projects and constructed environments, wherein viewers are prompted to participate with found objects, the art, and each other.
Condorelli has explored the role of friendship as a condition of working together in her exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery London in 2014, titled Support Structure.
The Keir Foundation is proud to have supported the making of this work.
