BENJAMIN VALENZA

Nothing Belongs to Me

3 November - 20 December 2007

We are happy to announce the first solo exhibition of the French artist Benjamin Valenza at Jan Winkelmann / Downstairs.

In the exhibition, entitled "Nothing Belongs to Me" Benjamin Valenza interacts with and transforms the exhibition and storage space as designed by BURGHARD using common, commercially available roller blinds that he has painted in monochrome colours and burnt holes in. Three lead reliefs playfully refer to the early work of Richard Serra and Marcel Broodthaers, while the small-format postcards of a selection of Yves Klein's monochrome paintings that have been over-painted with black spray-paint allude to the act of "erasure". Lastly, reference is made to the poetic currents of the "Beat Generation" of the 60s in the form of a sound installation.

In his work, Valenza merges industrial and everyday materials as well as objects and products of the popular culture to approximate - as he describes it - "unconscious daily metaphysics". A further aspect of his work deals with the concept of a "New Folklore" - the discovery of folkloristic structures within the collective sentimentality of contemporary popular culture.

Benjamin Valenza (born 1980) lives in Lausanne, where he just graduated from the Ecole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne.

Opening hours: Tue-Sat, 11 am - 6 pm


-> download press release in ENGLISH
-> download press release in GERMAN