Janaina Tschäpe's Microcosms at Galerie Catherine Bastide

Janaina Tschäpe's exhibition at Galerie Catherine Bastide in Brussels centers on fifteen large-format photographs and an equal number of watercolors, which she calls 'microcosms.' The German-born artist, who lives and works in New York and Rio de Janeiro, creates a personal mythology through photography, watercolor, video, and sculpture. The photographs feature female bodies with pneumatic, oversized extensions that evoke octopuses, Hans Bellmer's dolls, or the Michelin Man. Shot after tropical rain in Brazil, the images emphasize natural settings, suggesting rebirth and purification. Tschäpe's work merges body and sculpture, creating hybrid beings that reference ancestral myths while remaining contemporary. She explores the secular presence of women through a syncretic, multi-referential lens. Nature acts as a powerful agent in her staged scenes, with waves and aquatic vegetation contributing to a sense of weightlessness. The exhibition precedes a larger show, 'Cimaise et portique,' at Moulins albigeois in Albi from June 27 to November 2, 2003.