Etienne Chambaud. The Siren’s Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo Stato delle Sirene

Etienne Chambaud. The Siren’s Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo Stato delle Sirene. Installation view, Nomas Foundation, Rome. Ph. Altrospazio

in collaboration with Vincent Normand
Curated by Cecilia Canziani e Ilaria Gianni

April 15th - May 29th, 2010

Nomas Foundation is pleased to present The Sirens' Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo stato delle sirene, an exhibition by Etienne Chambaud in the framework of Vincent Normand's project Permanent Exhibition, Temporary Collections.
The Sirens' Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo stato delle sirene is developed by Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, the David Roberts Art Foundation in London and Nomas Foundation in Rome. The exhibition, interpreted in a different language almost simultaneously at each foundation, is based on mechanisms of writing and transcription. Translation should be considered both the medium and the shared language of the whole project.
The project takes its title from the mythological sirens' song, which invents itself in the ear of its addressee. Here The Sirens' Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo stato delle sirene, is conceived as a group of « written objects »: absent but described, motionless but translated, unique but repeated, mute but transcribed.

The Sirens' Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo stato delle sirene is made up of an installation of Figures, a group of named, empty plinths (The Reef), which acts as a space from which are emitted layers of speech and text. Actors will occasionally interact with this space, reading, memorizing and rehearsing fragments of script and dialogue. Sometimes The Reef will remain silent.
A group of framed Instruction Pieces hung on the wall will outline a series of gestures and acts. These will change over the course of the exhibition. A writer (The Copyist), present at all times, will transcribe the evolution of the exhibition day after day. The foundation's collection will be included through a series of photographs of their storages, in which all crates will be named (Stock Figures).
A written contract, drawn up by a lawyer, will outline the conditions for the exchange and the conservation of copies of sculptures exchanged between the three foundations' collections (The Horse, the Cobblestone, Above the Weather).

The exhibition is a collection of narrative fragments, playing with accumulations and disappearances, survivals and hauntings. From inscription to oral tradition, polyphony to cacophony, The Sirens' Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo stato delle sirene explores its own remains and is constructed on
its own echoes, misunderstandings, partial interpretations and incomplete memories. The exhibition is conceived as a series of fossils organizing their own archeology.

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with The David Roberts Art Foundation, London and Nomas Foundation, Rome and will be opened simultaneously in the three Foundations:

- The David Roberts Art Foundation, London 19.03.2010 - 24.04.2010
- Kadist Art Foundation, Parigi 03.04.2010 - 02.05.2010

Media partner this is tomorrow

Nomas Foundation

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Etienne Chambaud. The Siren’s Stage/Le Stade des Sirènes/Lo Stato delle Sirene