KENDELL GEERS Kannibale @ YVON LAMBERT PARIS until decembre 8, 2007

Kannibale is Kendell Geers’ first solo exhibition at the YVON LAMBERT gallery.

In 1928, the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade (1890–1954) announced his “Manifesto Antropófago”: “Only Cannibalism unites us. Socially. Economically. Philosophically”. In this Cannibal Manifesto, Cannibalism is a powerful metaphor for the cultural incorporation of the values of “what’s not mine”, what’s stranger to me; as well as a radical vision for extremes of violence.

Kendell Geers uses Andrade’s “Manifesto Antropófago” and takes cannibalism as a symbolic practice, a metaphor for violent acts that occur in societies, risen from excess of power, domination (especially colonialism and class structure), economic exploitation, emotional impulses and traumas. This cannibalism makes no attempt to strive towards a reduction of tensions. However, its instinct focuses on what is positive; the creative flows, life drives, eroticism and cultural exchange.
The exhibition is equally a tribute to Francis Picabia's dada review ‘Cannibale’ in which he states his Dada Cannibal Manifesto:

"like your idols: nothing.
like your politicians: nothing.
like your heroes: nothing.
like your artists: nothing.
like your religions: nothing"

Geers consistently explores the collapse of belief systems and ideologies, using all possible media.


This exhibition will feature for instance razormesh phallic towers, symbols of the Cannibalist architecture. "Razormesh" is a razor blade security fence now exported globally to the prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq or Palestine. This particular fencing featured in Geers sculptures was developed in South Africa during Apartheid. It is highly symbolic in the sense that it is different from barbed wire, in his words "barbed wire is for cattle but razormesh is for humans and is the universal
symbol of the twenty first century".
A replica of the “Nike of Samothrace” will preside over the show just as the one in Samothrace. The original sculpture has been in the Louvre since 1884, cannibalized by another society.

KENDELL GEERS Kannibale
october 18 – decembre 8, 2007
Opening, thursday, octobre 18, 2007

YVON LAMBERT PARIS
www.yvon-lambert.com
108, rue Vieille du Temple F-75003 Paris
T 01 42 71 09 33 – Fax 01 42 71 87 47

FIAC, PARIS, FRANCE : STAND B-26