Three French Exhibitions: Villa Arson, Marie Bovo, and Taboo

Three exhibitions opened in southern France in November 2003. At Villa Arson in Nice, "Re : location" features Fabrice Gygi's new gray monochromes on truck tarps alongside a suspended marine mine, Pierre Malphettes' neon "Trajectoire de mouche," Simona Denicolai and Ivo Provost's procession of five black horses connected by black sheets collecting their excrement, and Monika Sosnowska's architectural installation with carpet fragments of staircases and an inverted staircase with wall drawings. At Maison de la photographie in Toulon, Marie Bovo presents large-format photographs taken at night using only moonlight and artificial light, with long exposures creating a luminous effect; her series includes beaches with lunar-like sand and vaporized waves, and empty housing estates with green light evoking surveillance footage and a David Lynch atmosphere. At Galerie Roger Pailhas in Marseille, "Taboo" curated by Arnaud Maguet and Olivier Millagou features eleven artists exploring a fantasized vision of the Pacific and Polynesia, including Maguet's distorted projections of Tahitian women, Gauthier Tassart's video with music from "Cannibal Holocaust" and a testimonial about cannibalism in Papua, Lionel Scoccimaro's pin-up photographs with customized sculptures, and Adrien Pêcheur's exponential islands with strange creatures.