Enzyme at Galerie Frangulyan, Paris
May 19, 2017
The actors alternately blew cold and breathed hot air into the guest’s ears as the sounds of thunder unfolded in the background. Later, Hofmann pressed his mouth against mine and screamed until his breath had filled my lungs and my ears were ringing. People around me were beginning to tear up as menthol balm was being applied right beneath their eyes. Suddenly, the entire room was soaked in sweat, out of breath and moved to tears. Although the lines between artificially constructed and psychosomatic phenomena were blurred, this evoked a rare sense of earnest unity - no uncertainty, no isolation, only a collective presence.
In an immersive art performance ranging somewhere between a therapy session and a model presentation, the Berlin-based artist Lukas Hofmann / Saliva examines feelings of detachment, desensitization, and anxiety, as well as attempting to establish a safe therapeutic zone. Breath of the group of performers protrudes through the space in phases as a basal force connecting the actions and tying them together.
Text by Donna Schoens
Stylists : Laetitia Gimenez, Juan Corrales
Performers : Daniela Alvarado, Aske Andersen, Jose Arboleda, Lisa, Liza Basilaia, Maia Dubois, Vincent Esclade, Dourane Fall, Marge Togens Hule, Daena Phan
