The Musée d’Artwork et d’Histoire of Geneva (MAH) has invited Pascal Rousseau to discover the connection between objects and their energy to transfix seeing. The artwork historian recounts a historical past of fascination and invitations the general public to rediscover the MAH’s assortment in a brand new gentle. The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the artist Tony Oursler and contains work from his fascinating archives on the visible creativeness of hypnotism.

What’s it that fascinates us a couple of murals or an odd object? Can we journey throughout the house and time that separates us from its origin, whether or not close to or far? The metaverse and augmented actuality at the moment are shifting our perceptions, however these questions had been already partaking Waldemar Deonna, the archaeologist who headed the MAH from 1922 to 1951. This exhibition is impressed by the originality of his reflections on the ability of artwork and its capability to seize our consideration and transport us, even nearly, by way of eras. Auras and halos, the flux of objects and pictures from the previous, the hypnosis of seeing, and the ecstasy of the senses—a historical past of fascination welcomes us to rediscover the MAH assortment in a brand new gentle.

The exhibition unfolds in two phases. The primary part, within the two giant Palatine Galleries, emerges from Waldemar Deonna’s analysis, notably, his pondering developed in a 1925 article titled “Les sciences auxiliares de l’archéologie,” (The Auxiliary Sciences of Archaeology), by which he turns towards what outdoors of creative conference and stylistic feat would possibly clarify the thriller of the ability objects have on us, no matter provenance, period, and objective. In search of to know the power at work inside this attraction—what he poetically calls their “fluidic property”—he proposes an anthropological interpretation of artwork objects that’s solely progressive for its interval. In Deonna’s footsteps, this exhibition additionally performs with the face-to-face encounter with these objects, bringing collectively an Egyptian sarcophagus and a wall of icons that echo the fabric and gleaming surfaces of golden objects. This expertise brings us to the symbolism of eyes and their transfixing energy. Take, for instance, the empty stare of a Modigliani portrait in dialogue with its archaic sources. The ecstasy of the senses permits for extra digital journey by way of time by way of objects. The picture of a hypnotised younger dancer, which Deonna found within the ebook Artwork et Hypnose (Artwork and Hypnosis, 1907) by Genevan Emile Magnin, takes us into Historic Greece to come across unique rhythm by way of the physique. Archaeology is just not solely a science of rediscovery but in addition an expertise of reanimation. The animated picture isn’t far in its most immersive mode. That is the invitation that the American artist Tony Oursler, a pioneer of video sculpture, extends by way of his multimedia set up that amazingly condenses the complete historical past of the visible creativeness of hypnotism.

at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève (MAH)
till October 27, 2024