CONDO

Nora Turato and Yui Yaegashi

27.03.–22.04.2023

LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS (Brussels) is pleased to present a two-person exhibition for their participation in CONDO São Paulo hosted by Projeto Vênus in their Lanterna Mágica space. LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS is a Brussels-based gallery shared by three galleries: LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, MISAKO&ROSEN, Tokyo; and Park View/Paul Soto, Los Angeles. Akin to the Alain Robbe-Grillet novel from which it borrows its name, LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS features a shifting cast of characters drawn from the programs and networks of the participating galleries. For CONDO São Paulo LA MAISON DE RENDEZ- VOUS continues in its collaborative spirit by bringing two artists from two of the galleries’ programs to Brazil: Yui Yaegashi (represented by MISAKO & ROSEN) as well as Nora Turato (represented by LambdaLambdaLambda).

Nora Turato captures the text hysteria that is circulating online. Honing in on specific content, she translates this news into her performance scripts whereby she processes meaning, sound and the stylistic devices peculiar to the particular medium, rewriting the appropriated passages to create powerful narratives. On this basis, she creates artist’s books, installations, murals, videos, audio works and spoken-word performances. For the exhibition at Lanterna Mágica the artist has created a new mural-work. Turato’s phrase which wraps one entire room is the phonetic spelling of ‘Watch your head’, the familiar notice found above low doorways, which cautions of potential impending injury. Written out by following its verbal intonations, the idiom begins to visually resemble almost a magician’s spell or a mantra. Breaking the sentence down phonetically begins to abstract the words and the meaning, shifting the focus to the sound of it, its frequency and inflection, transcending its original purpose.

Nora Turato (*1991, Zagreb, lives in Amsterdam). Most recent solo-shows include 52 Walker, New York (‘22); MoMA, New York (‘22); Secession, Vienna (‘21); MGLC, Ljubljana (‘20). Most recent group-shows include KH Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (‘22-23); Tank, Shanghai (‘22-23); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (‘22); Kunsthaus Hamburg, Hamburg (‘22); Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg (‘21), Kunsthalle Basel (‘21); Centre Pompidou, Paris (‘20); WIELS, Brussels (‘20); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (‘20), amongst others.

Yui Yaegashi's paintings unfold sensitively programmed on small formats. By imagining the size, the brushes and the colors she will use in advance, she constrains herself to a protocol and steps to follow, which are a priori detached from the aesthetic of the result. The colors, most often sober or neutral, are assembled in soft harmony, sometimes exploring the pallet of the same tonality. The same goes for her tools, where the particularity of each painting depends on the characteristics of the brush chosen. The paint material is almost always applied in a linear gesture, which allows her to create an abstract composition that does not refer to any environment or any identifiable form. The lines are often arranged horizontally and vertically and vary in size and width. The composition is set in a particular, predetermined order so that the lines intertwine, brush against each other, weave together, oscillating between oily transparency and denser texture. Nonetheless, the reassuring order of the artist's works also leaves space for instinct and improvisation. Thus, each movement, each tremor becomes an event and each hair of the bristle composes a fluid weaving. Whether carried out with precision or spontaneity, the programming of her compositions leaves us admiring the purity of the act itself. The formats of Yui Yaegashi's paintings impose a certain form of intimacy, a confidential approach, and invite us to a prolonged, almost meditative look, not only revealing the delicacy of the material but also the one of the artist's gesture, and all the depth that this implies.

Yui Yaegashi (*1985, Chiba,Japan) has exhibited at MISAKO & ROSEN, Toyko; Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo; i8 gallery,Reykjavik; Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles; The Modern Institute, Glasgow; Queer Thoughts and White Columns, both New York, among others.