Colloidal Suspension
Mathieu Dafflon & Leevi Toija
Photographies : Leevi Toija
Colloidal Suspension aims to propel our two practices against each other, with lighting dictating the rhythm and reading of the exhibition. At the heart of this exhibition we find W.J.T. Mitchell’s research on images, in particular his observation on our “(disavowed) desire to substitute a dead image for the living being”. The installation will use our respective works as components of a narrative created by this desire, with the images showing everything but what they are, offering up their own absence. We want this invisible but essential relationship to occupy the different spaces of La Placette.
J: The Mouth of Truth. [He stands on one side, she on the other]
The legend is that if you’re given to lying, you put your hand in there
[points to the mouth] it’ll be bitten off.
Where I currently am, cars run the world.
A: Ooh, what a horrid idea.
Within the social class I find myself in and from the point of view of a Swiss
grown public transport dependent, not a single activity – going for a drink
or eating out, shopping, catching up with friends or hopping to touristic
places – happens without using a taxi app or getting a lift.
J: Let’s see you do it.
Returning to this place for the first time in 10 years, it is easy to sense that
traffic has increased drastically. However, probably more due to
demographic changes than to socioeconomic developments.
[She looks up worried, but seeing J looking at her, feels some resolve and,
tentatively, she puts her hand towards the mouth. A moves her hand, closer
and closer, her fingertips entering the mouth, but loses her nerve and with a
nervous giggle, she pulls it back.]
The promise of ultimate mobility and thus autonomy remains attached to the
ever-growing four-wheelers and the use of portable technical devices
enables accessibility regardless of the existence of a personal driving
license.
A: Let’s see you do it.
Obviously, the way of travel shapes the everyday perspective one has on its
environments and on the world.
J [he looks worried for a moment, then finds his nerve]: Sure… 1
The way one sees things is shaped by the light the vehicle sheds at nighttime,
potentially distorting dimensions, colliding disparate memories and
suspending distances.
Selma Meuli
1Dialogue and audio description of the infamous scene at the Bocca della Verità in William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1953), starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
La Placette reçoit le soutien de la Ville de Lausanne, de la Fondation Sandoz et du Canton de Vaud.
Cette exposition bénéficie en outre du soutien de Pro Helvetia et de Leenaards.