Usefulless

In his essay, Theory of Metamorphosis, philosopher Emanuele Coccia celebrates the “power of caterpillars” allowing them to transition from one existence to another without having to die first nor being born again. The caterpillar thus in its full autonomy shakes up the natural order of things.

This in-between state materializes in the cocoon, an intermediate yet complete stage, totalizing more than the sum of two halves. The cocoon is a circumscribed territory which has no limits, not completely life, not totally death. This solipsistic space is plural, it is host to the liquid form, embracing simultaneity and different realities.

The artworks presented here echo the principle of transition which govern this exhibition. Through their relationship to space or how they question the function of an art object, through the staging of intimacy, these works identify a limit and almost mechanically, ask what lies beyond.

Usefulless is a quality specific to useful objects that are nowhere to be found when needed. Opening a middle way through the binary definition useful/useless, the term usefulless defines a transitional state of utility.

Here inside the exhibition, the influence of context reveals the intrinsic ambivalence of objects, useful only based on a need, at a given time, for something or to someone. Usefulless opens a dialogue between the works of the students of the Master Fine Arts at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne and pieces from artists whose respective practices explore similar avenues.