Paradiso Lussemburgo by Filip Markiewicz
The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia CURATED BY PAUL ARDENNE
ANTICHAMBER
As an access vestibule to Paradiso Lussemburgo, Antichamber condenses the themes of this stacked installation into nineteen drawings: Luxembourg and its provincial life, finance, globalization, icons of power, performance, Fortress Europe. Story-board of Paradiso Lussemburgo. The rug is printed with cinema references: The Shining by Stanley Kubrick and a suspended drum in reference to Volker Schlöndorff’s film The Tin Drum. Fiction vs reality.
LIMBIC THEATER
Limbic Theater is the entry of the mythical Luxembourg into the European context. It involves stage effects (karaoke is available to spectators), advertising (‘‘We don’t want to die for the truth’’ - large format poster-style drawings) and geopolitics (maps, 3D photomontage prints based on Google Sketchup). The relationship between the limbic system and the human brain plays a role in various emotions (fear, memory, aggression, pleasure). The walls are rebuilt.
JOURNEY TO THE LIMITS OF AN IDENTITY
PARADISO LUSSEMBURGO FILIP MARKIEWICZ THE EXHIBITION A film projected on three screens, Journey to the Limits of an Identity relates, in a detached manner, the European saga of a Luxembourg couple on a quest for the absolute. Between Warsaw and Luxembourg. Adam and Eve lost in a new Paradise? Bonnie and Clyde pacified? One character split into two genders? ‘‘Paradise is when the adverts begin’’, says one of the characters in the film.
THE FOREST
Luxembourg as a postcard of romantic calm peaceful nature resonates here with other less affable rural landscapes, areas of poverty and socio-economic adversity. The bathtub evokes a mixture of American Beauty by Sam Mendes, Psycho by Hitchcock and The Death of Marat by David, presenting dirty water, contrary to any prospect of purgation. The lyrics ‘‘This is the next century where the universal is free…’’ from the song The Universal by Blur are written on the wall.
All the works
© Filip Markiewicz
