Venice, the new exhibition by Julien Friedler: “The comedy is over”
The new exhibition by the Belgian artist Julien Friedler has opened in Venice. Is titled The comedy is over and investigates three different fundamental experiences of human life: pain, melancholy and hope. The exhibition, curated by the French art critic Dominique Stella, collects three evocative installations accompanied by a selection of canvases and photographs, and is housed in an exceptional location: the Church of San Samuele in Campo San Samuele, an architectural gem built around the year 1000, a stone’s throw from Palazzo Grassi. The public will be able to admire the works until 25 September 2022 (free admission from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00).
The set-up develops inside the Church of San Samuele unraveling among the major components of the basilica plan: the central nave, where the suggestive La Forêt des Âmes, and the two side naves, where it stands out on the right Les Innocents and on the left there are the masks de Les Pierrots.
Each of the three themes examined by Friedler is complementary to the others, and the set of works proposes a time of meditative suspension on the meaning of life, death and possible redemption. “The choice of allocating this investigation to a place of worship is therefore not accidental. Friedler’s goal is to offer universal food for thought, inviting us to discover ourselves, and also to become aware of the other. ”, Explains curator Dominique Stella.
TO Les Innocents, which evokes the concept of imprisonment, touches on the arduous task of focusing attention on the mystery of human pain, imprisonment, isolation and rebellion, inviting the viewer to an in-depth evaluation of the suffering that has always reproduced and repeated itself in the madness and violence of men. The installation recalls the incomparable dignity of every child, while the massacre of the Innocents is renewed every day: their suffering wants to strike our numb, if not anesthetized, conscience.
