Berlin-based gallery aKonzept will exhibit an extensive work by Emmanuelle Rapin at the Munich auction house Karl & Faber from 20 to 22 October 2023.
Fig. above: Emmanuelle Rapin, Self-Portrait in Suspension 1, 2022, needle perforations on black paper, embroidered with black cotton yarn and Sulky Holoshimmer yarn by Gunold, 120 x 300 cm.
The work Levitation from 2022 is a black paper work in the format 120 x 300 cm. With the help of needles and thread, the artist has created a body. It can be seen in all directions, it has neither top nor bottom, neither right nor left. It is disoriented. The perforations that form the body allow light to pass through, highlighting the nodal embroidery that emerges from the woman’s bust. This perforation was inspired by the emblematic levitation scene in the film The Mirror (1975) by Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), in which love and death combine.
When the gaze tilts the horizontality of the floating body into a vertical plane, the viewer recognises an ascension similar to those of the Virgin Mary as depicted by the Italian painters of Mannerism and Baroque. Thus the body is in a contraposto position, a bent and a bent leg indicate an urge upwards. The draperies reinforce the impression of movement by flying away on the left side. Levitation bundles the passivity of rising and the dynamism of a leap. It is the place where gravity and weightlessness merge. In Autoportrait en Lévitation 1 (> Self-Portrait in Levitation 1), the body of the perforated artwork is unfolded in full extension, the raised arms forming a curve. A vault in the sky.
Emmanuelle Rapin was born in Épinal, France, in 1974. She began her artistic training at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris, where she studied under the guidance of Jean-Luc Vilmouth from 1998 to 2002. Before that, she completed a degree in Modern French Literature at the University of Bourgogne in Dijon and a degree in Art History at the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. From 2003 to 2005, she received a scholarship from the La Seine Contemporary Art Research Programme with Tony Brown at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. Rapin has expertise in art embroidery (“broderie d’art”) and studied at the prestigious Haute Couture Embroidery School (“Conservatoire de Broderie”) in Lunéville, where she graduated in 2018. Rapin lives and works in Berlin.
Galerie aKonzept was opened in spring 2017 by owner Dr Hermann Braun and artistic director Raphaël Lévy. The gallery presents art from the 1950s to the present day. The operators distance themselves from any conceptual restrictions and value a free conception of the programme according to individual preferences. Galerie aKonzept is located in Niebuhrstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
The Karl & Faber auction house will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2023. Today it is one of the most dynamic auction houses in the D-A-CH region. The head office is located on the outskirts of Munich’s old town. Karl & Faber says it has representatives in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Vienna, Basel, London, Milan and New York.
WHEN?
Friday, 20. October until Sunday, 22. October 2023
WHERE?
Karl & Faber
Amiraplatz 3
80333 München
