New Media (Virtual Reality)
Khora Contemporary Launch
Presented by Faurschou Foundation and Fondazione Cini
12 May 2017 – 27 August 2017
Isola di San Giorgio, Venice, Italy
Paul McCarthy
Christian Lemmerz
This year’s Venice Biennale marked the launch of Khora Contemporary, showcasing major commissions by German artist, Christian Lemmerz, and from LA-based Paul McCarthy at the Fondazione Cini as part of this summer’s Faurschou Foundation presentation in Venice.
Christian Lemmerz’s La Apparizione, produced earlier this year, aims to disrupt stereotypes of religious imagery, engaging the viewer in a discomforting, close-up experience with a burning corpse of Jesus Christ, which ‘rains’ embers. Jesus and other religious personages have figured in the artist’s work before, and ‘Bodybuilder’ Jesus first appeared in Lemmerz’s oeuvre in 2013 in sculpture form. Here, he comes alive in death, his rippling muscles writhing in agony, dripping golden blood into the physical space of the viewer. The aim of this VR work is to enhance the relationship the viewer forms with the imagery; its beauty, excess, death and pain.
Paul McCarthy’s work C.S.S.C. Coach Stage Stage Coach VR experiment Mary and Eve has been especially created for the show in Venice, and revisits characters previously present in the series ‘Coach Stage Stage Coach’, or ‘CSSC’ for short. McCarthy has often tested the emotional stamina of the public. This time experience transcends borders, through the interplay of the female characters Mary and Eve, the artwork interacts directly with the viewer’s personal space, left with no choice, but to take a protagonist position in the unfolding act.