Mises en scène

2015

acrylic painting and serigraphy on canvas

variable dimensions

unique

The young men in Mises en scène (2015) are restored to the temporal frame of a narrative that surpasses them, in which they were most often mere extras, and are rehabilitated by the artist. The enlargement exaggerates the dotted pattern of the screen, while the silkscreen process adds color, lightly tinting the body pink. In this series, color appears each time in an indexical way, reversing the usual “indexicality” of the photographic image. Silkscreen on canvas is a hybrid practice, situated between photography and painting. It is impure. In this sense, Clarisse Hahn profanes both the “proper manner” of classical academic tradition and the “improper manners” of press photography. The title mise en scène indicates how much bodily attitudes are shaped by habitus. The final scene of infamy in this series reprises a gesture of accusation found throughout religious iconography. Clarisse Hahn does not turn these young men into modern Christs, nor does she rehabilitate them in that sense; rather, she quite literally “reclothes” them in flesh-toned color, embodying them, granting them a humanity in which we can once again see ourselves.

Marie de Brugerolle, 2018