FATcorner
The FATecke is an exhibition platform in the book salon of the KOSMOS (Zurich), where FATart artists can present and exhibit their work for three months.
#13 Michèle Scaramuzza - PLEASE SEND ME A KISS
05/06/2022 bis 07/17/2022
scaramuzza.ch @scaramuzza7
Photo: collage of the Kiss series, Michèle Scaramuzza
Meet the Artist: FatRendevous 30.6.2022
Conversation between the artist and Martina Venanzoni, curatorial director FATart
Where? Kosmos Buchsalon, Lagerstrasse 104, 8004 Zurich
When? 6 pm
Michèle Scaramuzza: PLEASE SEND ME A KISS
Whether in Rodin, Klimt or Munch - the motif of the kiss is bursting with artistic and cultural significance. At the beginning of the 1960s, the kiss also gained in feminist symbolism. Since the beginning, the kiss has been one of the most universal and meaningful gestures as a means of communication, an expression of love, and a highly politicized act.
The sudden reinterpretation and banishment of interpersonal closeness at the beginning of the pandemic was all the more drastic. Faces disappeared behind masks, touch became a health risk - a kiss was an absolute no-go.
Inspired by this social change, Michèle Scaramuzza turned exclusively to the kiss as a gesture in her latest series of images. Due to the lack of human contact and intimacy, the artist reached out to family and friends to ask for a selfie kiss. Scaramuzza then used the numerous photos as a template for the Kiss series. Scaramuzza's choice of detail as well as materiality and style serve as conceptual means. The watercolor painting allows contours to flow - the fragility and transience of the kiss is underscored.
The Kiss series was launched at the beginning of the pandemic, with the artist quickly becoming aware of the transformative power of photography and her own brush. "On paper the kiss seems very fleeting, almost insignificant ." Despite the naturalistic style, Scaramuzza's kisses actually seem abstract, almost misused and absurd. As a snapshot without context, the works illustrate the validity of personal relationships as well as the cultural and political significance of the kiss.
Impermanence and transcendence are constant themes in Scaramuzza's work. Born in Switzerland, she deals with life, love, death and finally the central influence of social and political circumstances. Individuals are primarily shaped by their social environment. The politicization of life is thus an essential part of our self-perception and our existence - a reality that for Scaramuzza was once again illustrated by the pandemic. The global crisis highlighted social inequalities, raising pressing questions of access and rights.
Who is allowed to kiss whom? When? And where?
After three years of pandemic and an end in sight soon, Scaramuzza dares to take a look back - the cosmos in Zurich is bursting with topicality and cultural relevance.
Scaramuzza's exhibition can be seen from May 6th, 2022 to July 17th, 2022 in the Kosmos Buchsalon Zurich.
Text: Maja Renfer
