CHANDELIERS, was part of the exhibition COMING SOON: “This is a patient exhibition. It chooses its words carefully, but then speaks them without hesitation. Its movements are slow but not tired, like someone who has laid out in the sun for too long. It’s blank but not mute, quiet but not frozen, absent but not ambivalent. It’s not in any rush – it enjoys the luxury of taking its time. COMING SOON is an unperformance. It’s made up of pauses, interruptions, loops and delays. It’s a movie without a movie and a dance without a dance. Nothing happens on time.”

Maria Hassabi is a choreographer who pushes the limits of performance often aligning the theater with the aesthetics of sculpture. First performed in 2006, her sextet, STILL SMOKING featured nineteen chandeliers gradually descending from ceiling to floor. First evoking a baroque ballroom, the chandeliers slowly became bodies to dance with and ultimately turned into physical obstacles to negotiate. A re-imagination of this piece, Hassabi’s new installation CHANDELIERS replaced the dancers with everyday exhibition visitors and slowed down the chandeliers accordingly, so that they began each morning on the ceiling and reached the floor by the end of each day – moving at the speed of sunlight. For those who know how to wait, it is a true spectacle.

Anthony Huberman, Curator
(Artists: Lutz Bacher, Tony Conrad, Maria Hassabi).

SHOWS

2018

– Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, Part of the exhibition “Talismans”, Paris, France (March 9 – July 1)
– Confort Moderne, Part of the exhibition “Tainted Love”, Poitiers, France (January 1 – March 4)

2012
– Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Switzerland (May 31-August 12)

 CREDITS

Produced by Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva.