In Pol Taburet’s New Show, Paranoia Is the Point
Tensions are high at Villa Medici, as a new crop of sculptures, paintings and drawings takes over the 16th-century space.
Summary
- French artist Pol Taburet presents Paranoia as Method, his new solo exhibition at Villa Medici in Rome
- On through July 15, the exhibition wraps the villa in sculptures, paintings and charcoal drawings, all completed during his spring residency at the institution
For all their uncanny, Pol Taburet’s aren’t inspired by dreams, he says. His figures, drifting between human and animal, evoke transformation, mortality and the uneasy space between life and death, each crescendoing with spiritual tension as it nears completion.
Fresh off a spring stint at curator Pier Paolo Pancotto’s Art Club residency at Villa Medici in Rome, the French artist has unveiled a new suite of works in a solo show, Paranoia as Method. Now on view through July 15, the exhibition envelops the villa’s gardens, loggias and salons with sculptures, large-format paintings and some rarely charcoal drawings (as seen in his “Cherry Blue” video for Oneohtrix Point Never), turning the 16th-century architectural splendor into tense psychic landscapes.
Photo: Pol Taburet / Villa Medici / Mendes Wood Dm
Photo: Pol Taburet / Villa Medici / Mendes Wood Dm
Photo: Pol Taburet / Villa Medici / Mendes Wood Dm
Tapping into his Caribbean roots, voodoo traditions, contemporary culture and classical painting, Taburet’s aesthetic mark, gestural and unruly, is entirely his own. The exhibition’s new body of work channels its titular paranoia as both its structure and method: bodies split and merge, and angst is left as your only compass.
“Anxiety here is a discipline, suspicion a way of composing, until the day comes to an end – and everything starts again,” wrote Matthieu Peck in the exhibition statement.
Taburet’s Paranoia as Method is now on view in Rome.
Villa Medici
Viale della Trinità dei Monti,
1 00187 Rome
