Expodrome

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (Strasbourg, France, 1965)
Collection: Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville et du Canton de Genève (FMAC and FCAC), Neon Parallax project

Expodrome is a luminous installation on top of a building, its elements being switched on in different combinations of signs until they form a full word, appearing for one minute every hour. In the meantime, onomatopoeias, letters or word fragments succeed one another in white, pink and orange, like mysterious abbreviations: ‘exp’, ‘rom’, ‘drom’, ‘x’. This syncopated dance of colors and signs forms a playful, joyful response to advertising signs, which are usually calm and austere. Expodrome is a portmanteau word combining ‘hippodrome’ and ‘exposition’ (exhibition), and it also makes reference to the title of an exhibition by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, who reused this neologism for the Neon Parallax project. The internationally renowned French artist is in the process of building a body of work that explores text and literature, but also architecture, music, fashion, the memory of cinema, and notions of time. Referenced stories and quotes inspire a practice that is developed through films, installations and sculptures, one that leads the viewer on a journey into imaginary geographies and scenes where one can encounter a hodgepodge of fictional or historical figures such as Lola Montez, Edgar Allan Poe, and Scarlett O’Hara.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham

Links:  http://www.ville-ge.ch/culture/neons/
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