Denis Savary Nashville

The video artist, sculptor and scenographer Denis Savary (*1981) has been developing a simultaneously challenging and playful oeuvre full of references of all kinds over the last twenty years. Each of his exhibitions spins its own story, in which the most banal everyday life and the most insignificant detail meet fantastic narratives and grandiose images. The large Salle Poma offers space and opportunity to present existing and newly created sculptures, as well as a new film in a own scenographic arrangement.

The starting point for the exhibition in Biel is an earlier project that the artist developed by invitation to mark the centenary of the Dada movement. Savary created Lagune (2016), a choreography featuring a Sophie Taeuber-Arp puppet set against a backdrop of backlit Plexiglas building facades, all moved by dancers. After being performed in Paris, Zurich and Geneva, the piece was presented for the last time in 2018 on the roof terrace of the EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, which offers a breathtaking view of the Parthenon. The footage of this final performance was then edited to create Athènes (2018–2025), the video in the passageway leading to the Poma Room. In a way, this work constitutes the scenographic script for what is to follow.

With the generous support of the canton de Vaud.