Corps à corps: Confronting the Body in Contemporary Art at Fontenay-sous-Bois

The exhibition 'Corps à corps' at Maison du citoyen in Fontenay-sous-Bois, France, from April 3 to May 12, 2003, explored the pervasive depiction of suffering, tortured, and deformed bodies in contemporary art. Curated by artists Zlatko Glamotchak and Christelle Morvan, the show posited that such representations remain haunted by a post-Christian vision of the body, even when parodic. Following earlier monumental exhibitions like 'Identité/Altérité' (Venice, 1995) and 'Sensation' (London, 1997), 'Corps à corps' staged bodies in a baroque via crucis, oscillating between brutal pathos and clinical coldness. Works included Glamotchak's inversion of Bernini's 'Ecstasy of Saint Teresa' into anguish, and Gregor Podgorski's secularized, ironic Pietà depicting a medical intervention. The exhibition juxtaposed painting, photography, and sculpture, pairing Germaine Richier with Dado, and creating dialogues between Zoran Music and Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Jean Rustin and David Nebreda, Pierre Molinier and Joël Peter Witkin. Rather than presenting a single Christian, sublimated body, the show emphasized a multiplicity of disparate bodies in mutual confrontation. Critic Claire Margat noted an excess of black narcissism and morose desublimation, but praised the curators' generosity in organizing the confrontation.