A performance and video-installation by Elina Bry and Hélène Cayet

FUSION FOOD

On January 19, 2023, Elina Bry and Hélène Cayet set forth a co-created performance at La Générale, Paris, following a 10-day residency. The performance is presented alongside a video installation that loops in the next room.

Fusion Food is an opportunity to share the obsession of the two artists for food, and in this case, more specifically Pasta for Hélène Cayet and Strawberry for Elina Bry. After hours of intense exchanges and ping pong of ideas, we therefore find ourselves face to face with these 2 foods – Pasta and Strawberry – that everything separates, which will end up hybridized, fused, like the organic bodies of the two artists. They seize it with humor and poetry, to the point of making it food for thought, an earthly food.

/Fr

Le 19 Janvier 2023, Elina Bry et Hélène Cayet présentaient en co-création une performance à La Générale, Paris, suite à une résidence de 10 jours. La performance est présentée en parallèle d’une installation vidéo qui tourne en boucle dans la pièce d’à côté.

Fusion Food, est l’occasion de mettre en commun l’obsession des deux artistes pour la nourriture, et dans ce cas, plus spécifiquement la Pasta pour Hélène Cayet et la Fraise pour Elina Bry. Après des heures d’échanges intenses et de ping pong d’idées, on se retrouve donc nez à nez avec ces 2 aliments – la Pâte et la Fraise – que tout sépare, qui vont se retrouver hybridés, fusionnés, tels les corps organiques des deux artistes. Elles s’en emparent avec humour et poésie, jusqu’à en faire une matière à penser, une nourriture terrestre.

Jin

Notion 4: The end of the World

4:1

Nous le regardions fondre sous nos yeux. Comme une première fois. J’aimerais rester à ce moment-là, sans passé.

We watched it melt before our eyes. I’ve never experienced anything like this. I would love to experience this moment rather than the past.

4:2

J’y pense, ce n’est pas si mal. Le bleu est-il celui de nos yeux ? C’est curieux…

Not too bad, actually, personally. Is the blue in our eyes? So strange.

4:3

J’ai eu beaucoup de chance, mais ça ne suffit pas, jamais. Azur.

I’ve had such good luck, but, it’s not enough, never. Azure.

Jin Matutamtada 2021

Elina Bry

ELINA BRY. elinabry.com

I start my journey to understand the way my interest have been linked to what my parents interest are. Even today, every time I see a ladder, I think of my Dad.

Going up a ladder give us a different perspective, a way to look at the world differently. In my case, going up a ladder is my heritage, the one I have been given by my father. I never had problems with heights and enjoy stepping on the aluminium device, in contrary my father has vertigo. One time he stepped on both side of the ladder, which is a H&S issue. Of course, the one who designs the ladders don’t follow the rules, the cobbler’s children go barefoot. 

Climbing to reach down, it’s easier to see when you are challenged by opposed forces. Time and money are in opposition. When you earn more you have less time, when you have more time you earn less. Where shall we go? 
There is three physiological reaction in response to threat: Fight, Flight or Freeze. Which one will it be? There’s only so much we can do to get ready, but the body has the final word. I’ve had them all but the one I just can’t forget is the freeze. There’s no escape.
What happens to an object when the body isn’t there? Its purpose changes, it’s no more useful in the way it used to. It becomes architectural, an artefact. I never found ladders particularly majestic. It’s only after I took this picture for a client that I understood. The composition was on point, the shine, the thickness of the aluminium made the object stand in itself. Interesting fact, in the UK, ladders are thicker than in continental Europe. Because the buyer is more conscious about the aesthetic of the object than it’s fonction. The body is no more needed.