Fair: Art Basel Paris 2024

For the first edition of Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais, Sans titre is pleased to present a project for the general sector, uniting three international artists in its program: Tanja Nis-Hansen (b. 1988, Denmark), Jessy Razafimandimby (b. 1995, Madagascar), and Agnes Scherer (b. 1985, Germany).

The exhibition is conceived as an ode to rest, to waiting, to non-productive bodies. In a society dazzled by action and performance, where it’s always a question of being “the best version of oneself,” little is made of cases of bodies that produce nothing, or which produce poorly.

The artists that comprise this presentation share a particular interest in the question of the artist’s body, which is nowadays constantly represented in movement, as powerful, even triumphal. This image is still more paradoxical given that it is the moment of repose, of reverie, of reflection that constitutes the point of departure for the creative process.

These three artists also engage the representation of the domestic universe in all its forms. It’s in the home that we find repose most often, and it is equally there that we conceal and care for bodies that are sick, old, unproductive.

For Art Basel Paris, the starting point of the presentation is comprised of a monumental paper sculpture by Agnes Scherer representing the artist’s own four-poster bed, which will be placed in the middle of the booth as a sanctuary.
The representation of bodies lying down is at the center of the work of Scherer, who is fascinated by the direct link between sleep and death, two temporalities that imply a loss of consciousness.
Scherer’s work develops unique forms of presentation which bring together paintings and handmade artifacts, generating large-scale installations. Using anachronisms and representation of universally known symbols, her work often illustrates the uncanny ways in which historical systems, economies, and societal roles are reflected in the present.

Jessy Razafimandimby conceived a holistic installation, composed of ghostly draperies, decorative domestic elements, and paintings. These ensembles are at the heart of his practice and have been elaborated throughout numerous shows, such as that which opened at the Dortmunder Kunstverein in February 2024.
Razafimandimby revives a world inherited from the past, re-enchanting domestic objects. The artist interrogates the history of interior design and ornamentation, as well as the social conventions and “good manners” traditionally linked to a conservative lifestyle and promoted by a classist bourgeois system. He thus interrogates representations that manifest the relationships of domination and power exercised in our societies.
Within this tangle of objects and draperies, the artist arranges paintings, produced on old pillowcases and sheets, depicting chimerical figures, characters at rest, dreamers, often accompanied by their pets.

Finally, the project is enriched by works produced by Danish artist Tanja Nis-Hansen. Working between painting, text, and performance, Nis-Hansen takes as a subject the body within contemporary capitalism: an anxious body, waiting, in repose, sick, or non-functioning. Her semi-autobiographical works, which explore themes such as waiting rooms and moments of rest, invite spectators to reflect upon the feminine condition through the prism of work and labor, and their relationship to exhaustion, illness, caretaking, and heritage.
The artist often has recourse to text and to typographical form to illustrate the onset of fever and the provocation of delirium and hallucination. The figures seem stunned and frightened to note the furtive presence and appearance of spectators in the intimate space of the booth.