Iceberg Process 5
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty
06.28–07.21, 2024
Presented at Tala
Curated by Stephanie Cristello
Opening Reception: Friday, June 28, 6–9pm
1644 W Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60622
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty, D-3F (detail), 2023. Paint, polycarbonate, cement, egg tempera, pigment, malachite, snail shells, aluminum, and caput mortuum. 80 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty, P-3, 2020. Installation view, Le Cabaret du Néant (Cabaret of Nothingness), Frac île-de-france, Château de Rentilly. Photo: Martin Argyro. Courtesy of the artist.
CHICAGO, IL—Chicago Manual Style presents the first solo exhibition of Madagascan-French artist Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty (b. 1993 France, lives/works in Paris) in the United States, Iceberg Process 5, opening Friday, June 28, 2024, in collaboration with Tala. Amid his sculptures and two-dimensional works, Savriacouty often incorporates organic forms—from archways fabricated from the cross-section of thinly dissected shells, unveiling their fractal geometry hidden within, to works on paper embellished with dragonfly wings—alongside industrial materials such as iron, concrete, and manufactured plastics. Delving into ancestral myth and the spiritual symbolism present within material histories, Savriacouty’s work navigates themes of disappearance, memory, and identity. Guided by a series of sculptures the artist terms ‘anchors,’ assemblages made from deconstructed chandeliers that combine found industrial and natural materials selected for their ability to float or sink when submerged in water, Iceberg Process 5 presents the fifth iteration of Savriacouty’s poetic attempts to recall the past.
Straddling stability and precarity, the artist’s approach to installation navigates real and imagined gateways and portals—dragonflies belong to the world of air, but dance on the surface of water; chandeliers within domestic spaces mark the transition between day (off) and night (on). Drawn to funerary rites and narratives of the afterlife, as told in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian myth, Savriacouty grafts elements varying interests that stem from the cyclical nature of time onto the seductive, hypnotic surfaces of his multimedia assemblages. Incorporating the scientific naming conventions used to identify and track the movement of icebergs as a metaphor for the psychic potential of objects, the exhibition engages with conventional territorial and cognitive frameworks through recent sculpture, performance, and site-specific installations.
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty, R-3L, 2022. Anchor, water from the Seine, filaments, styrofoam balls, led lights, polysterene, algae, earth. Courtesy of the artist.
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty: Iceberg Process 5 is curated by Stephanie Cristello (Director / Curator, Chicago Manual Style) and organized by Francine Almeda (Founder / Director, Tala). Savriacouty has exhibited at the Monnaie de Paris (2023), Centre d’Art Contemporain Chanot (2022), the Biennale Internationale de Saint Paul de Vence (2021), and the Frac Ile-de-France, Château de Rentilly (2020). He recently completed participation in a research program for socially engaged practice presented jointly by the Centre Pompidou (Paris), HKW (Berlin), and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània (Barcelona). He is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris and the École des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier, where he worked for director and writer Rodrigo Garcia.
Generous support for the exhibition is provided in part by Les Amis des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and is the result of the SARR Prize, funded by the SARR Collection and Villa Albertine, awarded to the artist in 2021.