Once Only Once by Djeff

4 INTRO 12 DOUBLE A 24 RESOLU 36 BREEZE 48 BLACK W 62 AD AST 74 GREAT ES 88 DJEFF 90 VIRGINIA

ART BAG UTION 37/7 WIDOW TRA SCAPE A VASQUEZ

Once on a small shipping palette from France, an exhibition made its journey to Böhmische Brauerei, an abandoned brewery in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. In the old vaults, facilities were built for its 6 installations – a collaborative endeavor between artist Djeff, curators Polina Piagin and Lotta Pick, and the local community for Berlin Art Week. Only this was the beginning. The 6 installations, each unique but connected by a vision, emerged from the ruins of the former brewery. Within its decaying walls, an exploration into the concept of being, in a world dominated by technology and consumption. This thought-provoking, immersive experience aimed to nurture critical thought, introspection, and create awareness of our role in the delicate balance of nature and its survival – a return to humanity. Once Only Once co-exists with the remnants of the brewery’s past, situated within Berlin’s larger historic narrative, from the city’s rise and fall to its current revitalization. The artist reclaims the building and creates a visceral and reflective space, from Black Widow’s sensory-destabilizing lights that epitomize the impact of technology, to Resolution 37/7 message on the planet’s urgent need for human intervention in ensuring a sustainable future. The installation evokes conversations on the interconnected relationship between human beings and their environment, and sense of belonging in the world. Through the works, the artist is an active participant in this dialogue, forcing the audience to question their perceptions and form a new understanding of how we collectively shape local and global consciousness.

A group of visitors enter Böhmische Brauerei and walk down a deteriorated, graffiti-marked hallway into one of the abandoned vaults. They approach a collector’s car equipped with a safety feature from another era; airbags appear to have activated on impact, but how is this possible? This technological anomaly, along with no physical proof of an accident or passengers evokes speculation: What caused the airbags to deploy? Who was suffocated by the airbags? Could it be the artist and their passenger? So many questions, until one remains. What does it mean?

INFLATE INFLATION UNDER PRESSURE EXPLODE FROM IMPACT 10

Double Artbag presents a classic model of vehicle, lent to the artist by a local of Berlin. It is “outfitted” with a safety device from a time that does not belong to it – a false semblance of an airbag, consisting of an excessively inflated balloon. No trace of collision or impact seems to be the cause of its automatic triggering. The disappearance of any occupant sets up a climate of alert in the degenerating automation of the system. The proper functioning conditions are therefore no longer guaranteed. Just like the illusory craze that can be experienced in the commercial world of objects, a fortiori that of material life, including artistic productions, the value of the collector’s car now exceeds that of its marketing. It is decked out with an outgrowth that has become deficient by an excessive volume, although regularly intended for the protection of passengers. On the threshold of the explosion, this automobile “bubble” adds all the excessive increases in speculative spheres – real estate, stock market, internet – which have experienced dazzling growth resulting from unreasonable collective behavior, to finally derive their name “bubble” from their ability to burst.

With piqued curiosity, they continue to the next vault, stepping on brick fragments and dirt, trying to maintain stability. Like the ground beneath them, they are fragile... a kind of metaphoric preface to what awaits them in the dark space, lit only by the film projected on a large screen. Viewers are engaged by images of nature’s ethereal beauty, while emphasizing its fragility. A call to action to protect the planet and preserve its natural resources.

GLASS BOTTL THE SOUND T LAND AND S I HAVE A MES FOR YOU DO YOU HEA I WAIT FOR RESPONSE PLEASE REPL 22

LES SHATTER TRAVELS SEA SSAGE AR IT? R YOUR PLY

October 28, 1982, the United Nations proclaimed the World Charter for Nature and recognized the importance of protecting the environment for the survival of future generations. Silently, wild life seems to reconquer the vestiges of an abandoned citadel and erase the traces of past madness. Immutable witnesses of this slow disappearance, six characters embody the articles of the World Charter of Nature. Their solemn litany has no effect on the current process. A strange teetering mobile, of which there remains only shards of glass which also won’t resist the assaults of time. Ineluctably, they will again become grains of sand and return to their original form to which the hand of man has subtracted them. Above them floats passages of the Charter, printed on clothing labels, as mere obligatory mentions which are given little importance. Like the last reader of the Charter, it is up to the new generation to realize that this legacy needs to break the inertia, that human history is only a fragile parenthesis on the scale of time. Thirty-five years later, Resolution 37/7 depicts a humanity that continues to impassively witness its own fall.

The visitors are drawn to a faint white light emitting out of one of the vaults. From a distance, they merely observe the installation, but soon discover it “turns on” as they approach, but what is the source of its activation? They interact with it in awe of how it responds to the air of their bodies in motion. As they play in the light, their silhouettes bump into each other like molecules, coming into existence.

I AM A SOUL MADE OF TH ELEMENTS SHADOW A BECOMING

L IN A BODY HE AND LIGHT G

Breeze is a poetic installation on the notion of presence. Double sided mirror, through a process of shadow, light and airflow. The presence of the viewer is captured by the photosensitive side and is then revealed by the heliosensitive side on a screen of silver streamers. Visual work before the mirror, the body’s shadow becomes light, every movement transforms into a luminous game and explores the body in space. A sensitive work for those who cross the mirror, the presence of the body reveals itself in the flesh, alive and vibrant, created by the flow of air. Breeze poetically brings to life the invisible presences.

Light once again leads visitors to the next installation. Attracted by a tubular web of blue neon lights that only intensifies, almost vibrating from its mesmerizing luminosity, as they take a journey inside, straight to its center. They appear to be absorbed in darkness, caught like prey by its namesake.

SHE SCROLLS TEXTS AND EM AND OVERBO EVERYTHING RECYCLES NO COMPLAINS O OR THAT S OR THE OT RATHER TH QUESTION IS THERE 46 MO

AND TAGS EMAILS PLANS OOKS BUYS G ON TREND OTHING OF THIS SOMETHING THER HAN ORE TO THIS?

The installation evokes the idea of a technological trap. The net structure composed of weaved wool yarn fixed at a central point refers to the constant geometric architecture of the tubular webs of sedentary spiders. Neon lights are placed on each edge forming the frame of the canvas. In the center of the funnel-shaped composition, a light bulb emitting black light takes the throne like a spider posted on the lookout within its capturing system. The device is reactive: the lighting activates by detecting the presence of the public. The light, at first pale, intensifies gradually, and through fluorescence, the weaving of the white yarn metamorphosis into a seduction trap with hypnotic optic. After a certain time, the light turns off by itself and is reactive only by movement. An artificial environment with limited life, Black Widow opens a reflection on the programmed obsolescence, a symbol of a society of overconsumption.

During Once Only Once for Berlin Art Week 2021, Djeff invited dancer/choreographer Ablaye Diop and director Gabriel Mokayed to immerse in one of his creations (Black Widow). At the crossroads of these 3 talents – THIRD was born. A spatio-temporal choreography which destabilizes our senses. This graceful film is influenced by the symbiotic relationships found in nature’s intricate web; the invisible forces that guide the creative process, and the mercurial dance in which the body and mind intersect.

www.djeff.com/portfolio/third

One by one, visitors stand before a tall, magnificent structure; hanging black magnetic tapes resemble the long, graceful branches of a weeping willow. It gently sways and shimmers as natural light and air move through the space, coming to life. What is recorded on the magnetic tapes, if anything at all, is a mystery. Still, in the eyes of the viewer, a tree, rooted in the earth recording the passage of time.

LIFE DIVISIBLE INTO PART IN HARMO WITH ALL TH A SOUL TO OUTLAST THE GENERAT

TS ONY HINGS

TIONS

Similar to a gigantic weeping willow, a biomorphic form unfolds its branches made of magnetic tapes in space. This technology that enabled space exploration on the moon has become obsolete, with limited considerations of its significance and lasting capabilities, epitomizing our failure to transmit across generations. Associating the memory of a tree, rich in cultural symbols to magnetic tapes in which the first mass memories were recorded in computer science, the dispositions of the human soul are juxtaposed between despondency and hope.

In another dark space, candles are delicately placed on the ground and in small, cavernous holes in the walls. Their orange glow reveals what remains of the building’s disintegration. Like candles on a church altar, it is an offering that provides a sense of peace. The remnants of wax piled and drawn up to the ceiling by a wick rope, symbolically create a direct line to the heavens for prayers and petitions to be answered.

A PARDON / A PLEA / A LONGING TO ABSOL TO RESOLV TO ATTAI *FILL IN T RESULTS NOT GUARANTEED NOW WHAT 72

LVE VE IN THE BLANK T D T?

The Saint-Merry Church in Paris entrusted Djeff with the boxes filled with the remains of candles proposing him to realise a new creation. The artist had the astonishing surprise that the candles were only half-consumed. Seizing this unique material, Djeff chose to dissect it patiently, breaking each of the candles to recover the wicks and keep the wax debris. At the end of this slow process to recover the wicks, Djeff carefully knotted these remains of the wishes made by the visitors within the church into a long rope rising above the fragmented wax fleeing towards the ceiling. At first glance, in this force of the upward movement and the symbolic potential of the object, a romantic religious image of devoted witnesses to the continuity of prayer, gratitude and hope emerges. Behind each wick, the vows assembled seem to free themselves from their waxy body and escape to the heavens in the pure tradition of ancient sacrifices when the gods were still feeding on fumes. Yet with more attention the subtle poetry of the blue wicks reminds us of a betrayal of a mercantile industry and evokes a great collective escape. Even before their full consumption, the candles are intended for the rebus, being only partially burned.

The title of the installation unequivocally repeats that of the great classic of American cinema The Great Escape (1963, John Sturges). Just as it is deceitful in its content, his story ultimately draws more to another classic of its kind, The Grande Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir), a visionary work of the inter-war period whose dramaturgy deals with the difference between worlds and classes despite the trials. Separation of spaces and aspiration to escape theatricality existence and fragile idealism, the gesture of fracture that Djeff portrays as before Renoir, the appearance of an animated escape as many possibilities and illusions.

Double Artbag 2014 Classic car, balloons, pump Resolution 37/7 2016 Film 18’45 Breeze 2007 Fans, silver streamers, electronic cards, wood, mirror Black Widow 2012 Wool, black light, wood, hooks Ad Astra 2018 Magnetic tape, wood Great Escape 2018 Candles, wicks

DJEFF

djeff.com

Born in 1975. He lives and works in Paris. Djeff ’s work strives to question the behavioral impact of new habits conditioned by technology. He often puts this semi-conscious assimilation in a playful confrontation of object-icons of past eras, which are diverted from their primary uses by the introduction of more recent technologies. From game art to installation, his works invite the viewer to reflect and be conscient of these new modalities of automatic life. His installations play with the fascination that man has for technology, evoking the impact of their evolution and human life on our planet. During his studies in communication, Djeff was particularly interested in the image, its ways of interaction and its new uses offered through technology by specializing in hypermedia at Paris 8 University, in digital arts at the Art Décoratifs de Paris (ENSAD) and design at (Ensci). In 2000, Djeff won the Foundation Hachette “Digital Creator” scholarship. He is also the founder of the digital entertainment studio “Dekalko.” From 2001 to 2009, he taught new media in the Department of Culture and Communication at Paris 8 University and joined Sciences Po in 2009 as their Artistic Director and then Creative Director in 2012. In 2017, he designed and facilitated “Hive” an international residency and take head of Arts & Culture Programming of “thecamp”. His installations, videos and sculptures are regularly exhibited in France (Centre Pompidou, Nuit Blanche, Foundation Vasarely, Foundation Louis Vuitton, festival Ososphère, Musée en Herbe, La Gaîté Lyrique…) as well as abroad (Shanghai, New York, Taipei, Vancouver, Istanbul, Montréal, Berne, Gijon, Eindhoven, Geneva…).

VIRGI NIA VASQ UEZ 90

Born in 1982. She is based in New York City. Virginia Vasquez is a writer, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. She was a professor of creative writing at the City College of New York, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing, with a focus on hybrid and experimental poetics. In 2014, she collaborated with director Jonathan Vandenberg on The Crossing of the Visible, a performance inspired by Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, presented by the Center for Performance Research in New York. Her work has been published in numerous publications, and was included in the Latinx anthology, What They Behind. She is currently working on her hybrid poetic book, El Llanto: A Puerto Rican Lament.

Once Only Once 12 - 19 september, 2021 Vault - Friedenstraße 92 - 10249 Berlin Curated by Polina Piagin and Lotta Pick Special thanks to Daniel Seyde Wencke Marisa Nuxoll Eva Nieuweboer Helmut Kettenmann Berlin Art Week Unité de Production Pandion Transiträume www.onceonlyonce.de Graphic design: Akatre Texts and poems: Virginia Vasquez Photos: Marjorie Brunet Plaza Print: Pixartprinting - Italy Price: 25€ ISBN: 978-2-9564864-4-2 Legal deposit: January 2022 © 2022 Unité d’édition Paris

/100