FROM JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 9
CENTRE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE MARSEILLE
At the Centre Photographique Marseille, Paulien Oltheten presents an exhibition on everyday rituals and miracles, combining her archives with her latest multi-faceted work Lourdes TV, in progress and presented here for the first time.
With deep attention, the artist selects fragments of photos and videos that examine the boundary between daily routine and ritual (the sacred), between spirituality and madness.
The title of the exhibition is taken from Byung-Chul Han's book "The Disappearance of Rituals: A Topology of the Present" (2020), in which he writes: "The sacred seriousness of play has entirely given way to the profane seriousness of work and production". Without play, life "ends up looking like mere survival. It lacks splendor, sovereignty and intensity".
In his book, Han calls for a re-enchantment of the world as one possible response to the functionality of capitalist society. He calls for the reintroduction of ritual (sacred) gestures into daily life and more elements of play, a way of creating time that can linger. Then people will feel more at home in the world again.
In this exhibition, the artist wants to give visitors an experience that touches on this, on enchantment and wonder. What would it be like to believe in something that is neither certain nor provable? At a time when many people doubt journalistic truth, democracy and the future, and seek guidance in all manner of rational or mathematical tables, finding beauty and peace in not understanding, not knowing, in the unimaginable and unpredictable, becomes one of the things the world desperately needs right now.
This exhibition is part of the Rencontres d'Arles satellite program as part of the Grand Arles Express.
Produced with the support of the Mondrian Fund.
