Jean-Sylvain Bieth's Poetic Investigations into Historical Atrocities
Jean-Sylvain Bieth's work explores the memory of recent and past history, focusing on its negative aspects, remnants, ignominy, and shared guilt. His strange fictions serve as poetic investigations into specific historical configurations such as the Inquisition, Nazism, and colonization. While Bieth evokes a humanity capable of all abjections, the animal species that have recently appeared in his work seem, on the contrary, familiar. In a series of three diptychs depicting Congolese suids, animal portraits are accompanied by trivial objects that recall the social practices of hunters.
Key facts
- Jean-Sylvain Bieth attempts to exhibit the memory of recent or past history.
- His work focuses on history's dimension of the negative, the remainder, ignominy, and shared guilt.
- Bieth's strange fictions are poetic investigations through particular historical configurations like the Inquisition, Nazism, or colonization.
- The artist evokes a human species capable of all abjections.
- Animal species recently appearing in his work seem familiar.
- A series of three diptychs represents Congolese suids.
- The animal portraits are accompanied by trivial objects recalling the social practices of hunters.
- The article was published in artpress in December 1993.
Entities
Artists
- Jean-Sylvain Bieth
Institutions
- artpress
Sources
- artpress —