Fat to Ashes, 2021

Pauline Curnier Jardin, winner of the Preis der Nationalgalerie 2019, is presenting the extensive video installation Fat to Ashes. The exhibition centers on the filmic work Fat to Ashes, which combines three storylines: a religious festival in honor of St. Agatha, the slaughter of a pig, and the Carnival of Cologne. The spectacle centers on the film inside an imposing, spacious arena right in the middle of the museum. Reminiscent of Rome’s Colosseum, the arena rises up to a great height like a set. Rather than being built of solid brickwork, the walls of the arena are porous. Seen from a distance the arena looks like a huge cake, with a facade made of marzipan.

The installation Feel Good is located in the columned arcade on the left side of the museum’s Historische Halle. Church loudspeakers, decorated with large candles that were blessed in Sicily, are mounted onto the columns and pour forth a soundtrack made up of clicking high heels and the swoosh of traffic. Together with drawings the artist commissioned sex workers to make that illustrate their life realities, they pay tribute to a group that has been ignored by the state and its politicians – not for the first time but during pandemic with a vengeance.

Artist: Pauline Curnier Jardin, Producer: Jacqui Davies, Artist assistant: Marie Flarup Kristensen, Curator: Kristina Schrei, Set Design: Christian Beck, Set design team: Richard Krause, Giulio Marco Olivero, Helena Rohde, Malene Tesch, Carpenter: Nikolas Friedrich, Joel Seele, Artistic production team: Quirin Bäumler, Ulrich Hakel, Intern: Pauline Millet.

Producer: Jacqui Davies/PRIMITIVE FILM, Assistants: Marie Elena Agiudo, Beatrice Tomassetti, Editor: Benni Atria. Sant’Agata – Sound editor: Antonio Gianantonio, Images: Pauline Curnier Jardin, Mirai Pulvirenti, Sound: Valentina Vallorani. Köln Karneval – Images: Imogen Heath, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Sound: Christof Shilling. The pig – Images: Pauline Curnier Jardin, Sound: Tobias Haberkorn. Postproduction: The Post Republic. With support of Acadèmie de France à Rome – Villa Medici, CRAC Sète, Institut Francais de Berlin.

Pauline Curnier Jardin, Fat to ash, 2021, HD video (transferred from 16 mm – and Super 8-film), color, 5.1 surround sound, 20:55 min), Courtesy of the Artist

Pauline Curnier Jardin, Fat to Ashes, 2021, Exhibition view Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, 2021 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, HD video (transferred from 16mm – and super 8-film), colour , 5.1 surround sound, 20:55 min, Arena-Installation, variuos media including steel scaffolding, wood panels, foam, fabric, straw, Courtesy of the artist