Berni Searle's First European Retrospective at Frac Lorraine

Berni Searle, a South African artist, is having her first European retrospective at Frac Lorraine in Metz from May 20 to September 18, 2011. The exhibition explores identity through a video journey where the body is seen as a symbolic, social, and political space, from fragmentation in 'Vapour' (2004) to dissolution in 'About to Forget' (2005). In her filmed performances, Searle's body is central to rituals and personal mythology, with natural elements like fire contributing to material disintegration. In 'Vapour', she reappropriates a ritual ceremony associated with sharing (Eid), with blue smoke filling the image as a figure walks through a vacant lot with crackling pots over campfires. 'Snow White' (2001) addresses the metamorphosis of a black female body whitened by flour, then transformed by kneading. Through blue vapors, black smoke from burning tires ('Moonlight', 2010), or red swirls from pigments and water ('About to Forget'), dissolution becomes a metaphor for transformation, though some moments are overly lyrical.