Paul Viaccoz,Murs chamaniques. Commentaires, video, 5’41’’, sound, French, 2022
In a back-and-forth between magic and the limits of science, between illusion and reality, Paul Viaccoz’ drawings, murals and object assemblies combine observations, threats and predictions, presenting a simultaneously surreal and horrified vision of the violence and atrocity of the news and its deadly conflagrations: wars, diseases, pandemics.
Recorded in January 2022 in Paul Viaccoz’ studio in Courroux, Murs chamaniques. Commentaires is a kind of extension of the ESPRIT ES-TU LÀ ? exhibition, which took place a few months before at the CEC. In the voice-over, he recounts his spiritual journey to encounter illness and death. The film also presents a visual journey, a tracking shot along a wall of his studio which encompasses the objects, souvenirs and personal mystical experiences that constitute the Murs chamaniques, which the artist has been continuously reconstructing in situ for the past few years. Day after day, he assembles objects taken from nature or from everyday life, souvenirs, fetishes, talismans, which are then juxtaposed or recombined with photographs, drawings, video screenshots, postcards, masks, musical instruments, skulls and crossbones, sabres, dried flowers, feathers, jewellery and pieces of embroidery. This collection of objects, images and texts forms a mural puzzle, reconstructed according to the artist’s moods, reflections and history.
Paul Viaccoz (1953, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois) lives and works in the canton of Jura. His work has been presented in various solo exhibitions, including ESPRIT ES-TU LÀ ? at the Centre d’édition contemporaine, Geneva (2021); La censure des messages at Musée Jurassien des Arts, Moutier (2018). He has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions: Résonnances (2021) and Mystères et frissons (2022), both at Musée Jurassien des Arts, Moutier; Sans titre, entre autres, David Mamie, Xavier Robel and Nicola Todeschini, a look at the FMAC’s collection of drawings at Le Commun, Bâtiment d’art contemporain, Geneva (2019).
This project is sponsored by the Federal Office of Culture and the Republic and the Canton of Geneva.
