Marian Goodman Gallery Paris is showcasing the work of the celebrated American conceptual artist Dan Graham who is best known for creating large-scale architectural pavilions that incorporate mirrors and glass. “I want to show that our bodies are bound to the world whether we like it or not,” Graham explains.The centerpiece of the exhibition is a new pavilion titled “Passage Intime” which comprises two curved screens of stainless steel and two-way mirrors. According to Graham, the work can either be seen as a claustrophobic and uncomfortable spatial experience or an intimate body moment. “’Passage Intime’ can be seen as either a Tunnel of Love or as frightening tight squeeze,” he says.Visitors enter the work through concave gap between the two partitions, inducing brief physical contact when two or more people enter at the same time. People inside the “passage” see a distorted and radically enlarged reflection of their gaze and body, similar to the effect of a bathroom make-up mirror, while people on the outside see a convex distortion of their gaze and body.“As they move the distortion changes,” says Graham. “People inside see optically concave mirror distortions and people outside the passage experience each other's intersubjective gazes superimposed on each other. Their bodies, in motion, are super-imposed on each other,” he adds.The exhibition also includes the first screening in France of Graham’s multimedia puppet-theater rock-opera “Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty.” Based on the 1968 exploitation film “Wild in the Streets,” the work features marionettes by Phillip Huber, a set by Laurent Bergen, videos by artist Tony Oursler, a theme tune composed by Rodney Graham, and live music by Japanther.“Dan Graham” is at Marian Goodman Gallery Paris until October 8, 2015
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