Drawing Room presents Marc Bauer: Mal Être / Performance (2019)

Mal Être / Performance presented a new body of work by Swiss artist Marc Bauer in his first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery.

Bauer’s chosen medium is drawing which he used to make small and large scale works on paper, a wall drawing and an animation. Marc undertakes extensive research into subjects, and there are key themes throughout his work, around nationalism, power, heredity, gender, identity, both using the visual and the written word. Sourcing imagery from the internet, Bauer uses the slow and cumulative process of drawing and erasing to interrogate the subject further, juxtaposing the past and present, the personal and the collective. This body of work dealt with the notion of the body and the sea.

The exhibition featured the motif of people on boats and migrancy throughout history, from ancient Greece to contemporary media footage. All of the works are drawn in graphite, and images range from those inspired by fifteenth century Catholic ex-voto paintings, to Théodore Géricault’s painting of a shipwreck in ‘The Raft of the Medusa’, up to ‘Aquarius’, the boat that rescued hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in 2018. Using the slow and cumulative process of drawing and erasing, Bauer’s project brings the past into the present in his investigation of humanity.

Bauer’s drawings ask questions about the plight of the individual and their portrayal throughout history. His work investigates how history echoes in contemporary events, and how images impact on our conscious and unconscious perception of reality, and by implication, our cultural and individual identities. He says: “This new installation of drawings is an attempt to understand the relationship between images, to see what impact they have on our perception of reality, and how they condition our way of thinking and define our identities.”

The first part of the exhibition title, ‘Mal Etre’, roughly translates from the French to ‘being in a bad way’. This condition unites images of people in transit across seas today and in the distant past. ‘Mal Etre’ also refers to a sense of unease the viewer may experience when viewing these images, with Performance referring to the various roles we adopt.

The exhibition was a collaboration between Drawing Room (London) and De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill on Sea). The exhibition was presented at De La Warr Pavilion from 1st February to 1st Nov 2020. Drawing Room and De La Warr Pavilion wish to thank the following for their support of the exhibition: Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Swiss Cultural Fund UK, Pro Helvetia, Outset. Drawing Room and De La Warr Pavilion are supported using public funding by Arts Council England. De La Warr Pavilion also wishes to thank Rother District Council.

Virtual Tour with artist Marc Bauer and Mary Doyle, Co-Director of the Drawing Room

Join artist Marc Bauer and Co-Director of Drawing Room Mary Doyle as they take us on a tour of Drawing Room’s virtual exhibition ‘Ȇtre/Performance’ (2019).