Gabriel Orozco's Dual Paris Exhibitions Explore Movement and Displacement

In September 2012, Gabriel Orozco presented two concurrent exhibitions at Galerie Chantal Crousel and Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris, both centered on the theme of displacement. At Chantal Crousel, the installation "Roiseaux" filled the space with hybrid mobiles made of feathers and reeds, whose shadows created the illusion of moving foliage on the white floor. At Marian Goodman, the video "Solvitur Boomerando" showed Orozco practicing boomerang throwing on the roof of his house in Mexico, a pun on Diogenes' maxim "solvitur ambulando" (the problem is solved by walking). The ground floor featured the monumental sculpture "Shade Between Rings of Air," a wooden replica of a structure designed by architect Carlo Scarpa in 1952 for the Italian Pavilion garden at the Venice Biennale, which later fell into disrepair. Orozco's replica was first shown in the Italian Pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale. Now, nearly a decade later, displayed in a gallery, the work creates ambiguity. Three semicircular plinths respond to the three hollow curves of the structure, holding terracotta sculptures from the "Orthocenters" series, made by hand rather than on a potter's wheel, resulting in forms shaped by repetitive gestures and accidents.