I am by birth a Genevese, Vegas Gallery Jun-Jul 2009

‘I am by birth a Genevese’  was an installation project initiated by Swiss artist Alexandre Bianchini and French/Swiss artist Pascal Rousson. Its primary aim was to re-enact the strange atmosphere of Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory and in the process to generate a new art work, presented as a whole new “creature” so to speak. Made up out of several diverse works by more than 160 artists, purposely clashing with each other, the “creature” was revealed on the evening of the preview.

Additionally the project questioned different ways of exhibiting artworks by showcasing the tradition of Salons and Cabinets of Curiosities, which evidently had no real curatorial approach. Here, the installation was to be seen as criticism of the role of a museum curator, whose aim it is to create, through new arrangements and themes, new meaning and new approaches of and towards works that are “ trapped” in art institutions for long periods of time. By opposition, Alexandre Bianchini and Pascal Rousson conducted experimentats, stressing the visual result rather than a theme: the theme being merely a pretext for the visual clash and experience.

By juxtaposing various works within the installation, and their status as part of a larger whole rather than as self-contained objects, the installation challenged the concept of art and artists as singular entities, as well as art’s dissident vision of itself.