Color and moodiness permeate an underlit room concentrated around a revolving disco ball and the sound of glam rock. The space is strewn with plastic artifacts and filled with snaking, tangled cords, practically begging to be captured in video form. The immersive installation is part of Marc Camille Chaimowicz's fall exhibit, An Autumn Lexicon, showing in London at the Serpentine Gallery. The Parisian artist is familiar with filling a space with visually-interesting artwork: in 2015, with four other artists, he engaged in the show, Portraits d’Intérieurs, at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. The exhibit asked the them to modernize the Villa Sauber, a majestic space in Monaco known for housing many artistic minds.
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For An Autumn Lexicon, Chaimowicz selects a few of his favorite artists and collaborators to bring the exhibit together. Described as a “scatter environment,” the artist will bring back his piece, Enough Tyranny, which made its first appearance at the Serpentine in 1972.Melissa Blanchflower, the curator for the exhibit, speaks about the timeliness of the show: "We knew that while some people have a memory of this work at the Serpentine, or are familiar with its installation from books and documentation, that the work would be new to many audiences. We are interested to understand how a work from the early 70s, which was very much a response to this particular time (popular culture and politics) can have currency and relevance today."
Chapter One, III (World of Interiors), 2008. Hand printed screen print, offset silkscreen and varnish, 91 x 72 cm, edition of 4 plus 2 APs. Image courtesy the artist and Cabinet, London
The visual artist has a special way with combining the aesthetics of fine and applied art worlds. A description of the exhibit from Serpentine describes An Autumn Lexicon as “drawing upon memory and space […] that responds to architecture and the [gallery’s] history.” Chaimowicz places an exacting focus on the environment of the gallery space, including the venue's natural architecture and lighting.Blanchflower describes how she and the artist conducted multiple walk-through's within the gallery space to establish the spatial balance for each artwork. She shares a few insights into the alterations necessary to calibrate a gallery space fo an exhibit: "He has designed a proposal for a frieze in the oculus of the first gallery, drawing our attention to the ceiling window which often goes unnoticed, and has harnessed the strong morning east light in the east gallery by covering a window with gels that cast coloured lozenges on the floor and walls, which change and move throughout the day."
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