AES+F: Inverso Mundus

Mobius Gallery has announced “Inverso Mundus” by AES+F, for the first time exhibited in Romania. The show runs from September 30th to November 4th and will comprise drawings, a limited edition of stills and the video installation “Inverso Mundus” (3 channel, 38’20”), one of the most acclaimed projects in the 56th Biennale di Venezia.

The exhibition opens on September 30th, with a reception held at #2 Mendeleev D.I. Street, from 7p.m. till 6 a.m.

Mobius Gallery will publish a catalogue to accompany the exhibition, with an essay by curator David Elliott and an extensive interview with the artists.

“The premise of AES+F’s new work, Inverso Mundus, is the reversal of all usual expectations.” (from The Grand Magic Theatre of The World: AES+F and Inverso Mundus, by David Elliott)

The concept of Inverso Mundus is rooted in the ancient Roman Empire, when during Saturnalia, the most important festival of the Julian calendar, traditional social rules were reversed as masters were called on to serve their slaves. Within the frame of contemporary society, the imagery of Inverso Mundus becomes disturbing, exquisite and timeless.

Engravings of the “World Upside Down”, known since at least the 16th century, depict such scenes as a pig gutting a butcher, a child punishing his teacher, a man carrying a donkey on his back, a man and woman exchanging their roles and dress, and a beggar in rags magnanimously bestowing alms on a rich man. These images also contain demons, chimeras, fish flying through the sky, and Death itself, variously with a scythe or wearing the mask of a plague doctor.

The title of the work, Inverso – meaning in Italian reverse or opposite and in Old Italian poetry, and Mundus – Latin for the world, hints at a reorientation of reality, a poetic vision. In AES+F’s interpretation absurdist scenes from medieval carnivals appear in a multichannel video frieze as episodes from contemporary life: characters act out scenes of absurd social utopias and exchange masks, morphing from beggars to rich men, from policemen to thieves. Metrosexual street-cleaners shower the city with refuse. Female inquisitors torture men on IKEA-style wheels and racks. Children and seniors slug it out in a kickboxing match.

Inverso Mundus is a world where chimeras are pets and the Apocalypse is entertainment.