Spit on the cement floor

Luciana Lamothe questions the relations between bodies, architectures and materials in urban, domestic and institutional spaces. She destroys social ceremonies, paying attention to the smallest of our self preservation instincts. Through subversive thoughts and illicit actions, furniture’s disassembly and sabotages filmed by a hand-held camera, her work — videos, sounds, installations, photographs and actions — put the public in the heart of her chaotic practice and her borderline position.

On the occasion of Crache! her first solo show in France, Luciana Lamothe presents the site specific installation Spit on the cement floor, 2012, that will fill up all the Alberta Pane Gallery. Both the ground and the stairs will be covered by cement dust. A thin, diffused film, vulnerable to the feeblest wind blow, here becomes a little heap, there a compact and bulky pile. Reminding a lunar landscape, came out from the concrete mixer, the installation is minimal and poetic. The artist gets a new possession of these remains of material and, thus, she invites us to participate in this transformation. Spit. Spit! But spit!! she seems to tell you. The dust could never become cement, unless someone humidifies it. An invitation like that, with his potential realization, changes the visitor’s glance and his placement in the space.

Text excerpt by Marie Frampier

Spit on the cement floor | 2012

Exhibition View: Alberta Pane Gallery | Paris | France
Photograph: Takeshi Sugiura