Jakob Lena Knebl enjoys blurring the boundaries between genres and media, mixing pop culture, design or even fashion with the great history of art – disrupting our perception of the world and our definition of art. In this sense, Walk On The Water is first of all an invitation to challenge the ‘rules’ of the museum, and an invitation to rethink the classifications, genres and hierarchical logics that accompany Western models of culture and identity.
As such it is no coincidence that one of the transversal themes that can be perceived throughout the show’s various installations is the role of the female body as a mystical and rebellious element, one that has been subjected to a patriarchal reading and represented as a mere aesthetic object of desire for centuries. The artist considers all these previous states of representation but reflects on them in ironic juxtapositions invested with a new power: from antiquity to the works of Symbolism, Knebl suggests the woman’s body as that of a heroine endowed with occult superpowers, but also of a technological knowledge that has been able to define and invent the domestic space in its most advanced and modern formulation. After all, it was two women, Josephine Cochrane and Margaret Colvin, who invented the dishwasher and the washing machine respectively…
Furthermore, the artist dedicates a room to the kitchen, putting together pieces from various eras that lead us to consider the evolution of our food culture and our lifestyle, from a more rural to an urbanized dimension. In this regard, it is interesting to note that one of the nerve centers of the exhibition is a sort of temporary store, which perfectly embodies this extremely hybrid moment in history where various contemporary needs unite. “Body, desire and staging form a unit. fashion comes into play,” warned the artist. The language of fashion that Knebl knows perfectly plays an important role here in the curious ‘pop-up’ store she has imagined. “At the back of the shop you can see further portraits of men and women from different eras that reveal the fashion of the time. A running sushi conveyor belt presenting shoes from the MAH collection is dedicated to the flâneur, that figure from early urban modernity who moved through the streets to observe and be observed.”
Upon reflection, Knebl’s bold and creative remix of history is essentially similar to the practice of a designer who works by taking cues from the history of costume, art and the contemporary stimuli that surround them. Here, Knebl applies the same underlying criterion for the conception of a fashion collection – in an attempt to guide us on a path through history that is alive and closer to us. The result pushes us to reflect on the limits of contemporary artistic expression today. “The ‘offensive’ work was not shown,” reflects Knebl, “The ‘degenerate’ artworks and those from marginal groups, were invisible. Now, it is the politically incorrect works that disappear. What are we allowed to see, to make up our own mind? This is history in the making.”
institutions.ville-geneve.ch/en/mah/
Words by Riccardo Conti
Photography by Julien Gremaud