Dear One • Virginia Bianchi Gallery • online • 2020
Solo Show
Dear One, investigates the decapitation of King Louis XVIth in 1793, in light of the worldwide mythological pattern of the Sacrificial King. It develops in 3 Acts, reflecting the three stages of Porré’s fictional Sacrifice: the First Act illustrates the Event of the regicide itself. As it often happen in Porré’s works, she chooses not to explicitly reveal the sacrifice. On the contrary, she inserts a number of elements that, together with the hidden connections to historical documents, assist the viewer in a gradual decipherment of the scene. On a mysterious altar, absorbed by a bloody, apocalyptic atmosphere, the cathartic sacrifice of the King is carried out.
The second Act of the show is dedicated to the Feast, or the celebrations for the Sacrifice of the King. The event evokes ancient societies’ feasts where facsimiles of the King’s organs, and Royal effigies made of dough, were prepared for all the people to eat during a celebratory banquet. It is a time to celebrate the momentary chaos that announces the return of societal order. In the in-between reality of the scene, the landscape is dominated by a magnificent banquet, whose lavishness, however, cannot conceal the feeling of uneasiness and dissolution evoked by the complete absence of people and the disquieting food on the tables: baked goods in the shape of organs of the Sacrificial King.
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The third and last Act of the show consists of an early-morning dispersion of the fragmented body of the King. Once again reminiscent of ancient myths where the body of divine figures was dispersed across fields, the royal body is scattered across the lands and fertilises the crops, literally becoming nourishment of his people, satisfying their hunger as he failed to do during his living.
Entirely realised digitally with CGI renderings, Porré’s Dear One is inscribed into her ongoing interests in the recreation of hyperreal landscapes that blur the boundaries between what is real and what is fake. At the same time, her virtual representations and her recent exploration of GIFs and moving images allowed her to institute a clear connection with the realm of early video games, or those spaces where, she explains, “fictionalised history was first experienced by a whole generation”.
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It is in that same way that Dear One presents the Sacrifice of the King: its tale connects events across centuries, presenting new perspectives on widely accepted historical events. Dear One urges us to be aware of both our past and the history of other civilisations, in an attempt to perceive that cyclical pattern connecting the past to the future, in an infinite wheel of time.
(Press relase, Dear One - Virginia Bianchi Gallery - 19/11-30/12/20)
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*Some works are available for sale, please enquire directly to the Gallery and Virginia Bianchi for additional information*
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