Amorce
Exhibition‑laboratory by Anna Mancuso presenting the work‑in‑progress film Arion made with slugs as co‑authors.
"Anna Mancuso's work often begins with a simple idea: what if…?
What if pigeons could draw? What if slugs could make a film?
What if an everyday object could produce something other than what it was designed for? From there, she sets up an experiment and lets things unfold. She observes, films and adjusts. But she does not control everything." (Thibaut Wauthion, Art Content)
Combining documentary, video and sculpture, her work explores process, experimentation and the unpredictable. By introducing subtle disruptions into the world around her, the artist seeks to reveal the poetic potential of the ordinary and the everyday. She creates situations that she observes without fully controlling how they unfold, leaving an essential role to chance, living organisms and time.
Amorce is an exhibition-laboratory presenting a work in progress: the film Arion. At once a studio, a laboratory and a set, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the different stages and components involved in its creation.
For several months, Anna Mancuso shared her living space with slugs from the Arionidae family, dedicating an area of her live-in studio to them. In several terrariums, she arranged soil, plants, lettuce and transparent Super 8 film stock. As the slugs moved around and interacted with their environment, they deposited their mucus onto the film, leaving traces that directly contribute to the making of the work.
A form of non-human writing thus emerges, making the slugs co-authors of an organic and unpredictable artwork.
In the film Arion, the slugs become landscapes to be explored, situated somewhere between the infinitely small and the infinitely vast. Their bodies and textures evoke unknown territories, damp earth and cosmic landscapes. These inconspicuous creatures, often perceived as insignificant or repulsive, are transformed into worlds in their own right.
Through Amorce and Arion, Anna Mancuso invites us to experience a shift in perspective. Within the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to explore the details of the space, slow down and pay attention to what usually escapes our gaze.
Distribution : Anna Mancuso