1/9unosunove is pleased to present Fever Sleeps Upright, a two-person exhibition featuring the works of Tura Oliveira (Fall River, MA; 1990) and Augustin Rebetez (Delemont, CH; 1986).
The exhibition presents two post-mystical universes made up of new rituals and creatures whose silhouettes are outlined in nocturnal twinkling. In order to redefine the human condition, Tura Oliveira and Augustin Rebetez interrogate the most remote boundaries of distant ethnicities and cultures, rediscovering the sacrality of the minority and reclaiming ancient techniques including those of textile craftsmanship and metalworking.
Tura Oliveira‘s large textile works originate from the Latin American tradition, and weave together cries of revolt (like the embroidered quilts of the Chilean Arpilleristas in opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship) with the artist’s own cultural heritage. They are narrative works that talk about mysticism, demonic possession and of human transfiguration into hybrid creatures. During her time spent in Rome at the British School of Rome last year, the artist explored in depth the interconnection between the mystical and the profane, the thin line between the eroticised suffering of the virgin martyrs and the representation of women in Italian Giallo, creating works from re-found materials already permeated with other people’s stories: old tablecloths from Italian families, used toys, antiques collected from the stalls of Porta Portese. Her works reveal an attentive gaze at the European Renaissance and Baroque, refreshed by the vivid tones of a grotesquely fairy-tale and naïf world.
Augustin Rebetez‘s works appear as traces of mysterious and dreamlike practices, tribal energies whispered among the trunks of forgotten forests. His signs refer to ancient symbologies and become the handwriting of the language of his imagination. The conscious and the subconscious entwine on his canvases and large carpets made in Morocco – where the artist has started a collaboration with cooperatives of local weavers whose work is protected by fair trade – that recall William Kentridge’s tapestries. Rebetez’s creativity is disarming and rebellious, expressed through a multitude of techniques and materials; the dimensions of his works vary from the volume of a brooch to the monumentality of the sculptures that populate La Maison Totale, the summer museum created by the artist himself in Bôle (CH); His characters move through space with the same movements of Louise Bourgeois‘ creatures. His installation approach and the plurality of media he uses lead Rebetez to achieve a poetic sublimation of Total Art.
ABOUT
Tura Oliveira (Fall River, MA; 1990) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA from Yale School of Art and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. In 2023, she received the Dean’s Prize from the Yale School of Art, a public art commission from the City of New York, and the Abbey Awards Fellowship from the British School at Rome. She has
received fellowships and grants from NYFA, BRIC, The Museum of Arts and Designs, Wave Hill, Ars Nova, A.I.R. Gallery, Yaddo and Tides Institute.
Her most recent solo exhibitions include: The Blood Vessel, Eve Yang Gallery, New York, NY; What a Glory to be so Euphoric and Weak, LaMama Gallery, New York, NY; Red Velvet, Orange Crush, Geary Contemporary, New York, NY.
Group exhibitions include: Expodemic, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; You were kept awake all through the night, British School at Rome, Rome; Quilting a Future, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH.
Augustin Rebetez (Delemont, CH; 1986) creates installations using a wide variety of media to achieve a poetic blend of total art. Since 2009, he has exhibited his works worldwide, including at the Biennal of Sydney, Les Rencontres d’Arles, SESC São Paulo, the Daegu Biennial, the Tinguely Museum in Basel and the Shenzen Independent Animation Biennal.
After participating in ReGeneration2, organised by the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, he won numerous awards including: Vevey International Photography Prize, Swiss Art Awards, Foam Talent and Latour Foundation Prize. Most of his books are now published by Label Rapace, a publishing house he founded together with Baby Volcano. He has also published with Actes Sud and RVB Books. He lives in the Swiss canton of Jura, where his house serves as a studio and artistic residence. In 2024, he opened ‘La Maison Totale’, a sculpture park and summer museum. Among his most recent solo exhibitions: Augustin Rebetez, Galerie Polomarco, Geneva (CH); Vitamin, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (CH); Rebetez’s Carpets, Galerie Nicola Von Senger, Zurich (CH); La Vie Moderne, La Ferme des Tilleuls, Renens (CH)