From next week, Luxembourg & Dayan’s townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side will be transformed into a spooky cross between a dollhouse and a haunted house by Alex Da Corte. Die Hexe—“the witch” in German—will lead visitors through a journey that invites reflections on memory, impulse, the stability of knowledge, and the value of a work of art.
Upon entering the immersive installation, visitors will be confronted with a series of vignettes, in which the settings correspond to forms and functions of domestic rooms. Da Corte has embedded each mise-en-scene with an artwork by another artist who serves him as foil or father figure. Sculptures by Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Bjarne Melgaard, and Haim Steinbach appear out of context like unannounced guests in this spooky environment, familiar yet estranged. Thus, through this process, Da Corte raises a series of Duchampian questions about art’s ability to maintain its life force when removed from its originally intended context.
Besides looking to his conceptual artistic forefathers, Da Corte also draws on his family ancestry, resulting in a complex intertwining of narratives. Snippets from his personal memory are weaved into the haunted dollhouse, such as objects from his grandmother’s house, or a pantry smelling of spices.
Through unfolding scenes in eerie surroundings that suggest a multitude of psychological states, Die Hexe traces a cycle of emotions, while raising the themes of memory, consumerism, American culture, folklore and the history of art.
Alex Da Corte, Die Hexe, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist and Luxembourg & Dayan
by Louise Lui
Die Hexe will run from February 26 until April 11, 2015 at Luxembourg & Dayan, New York
64 East 77th Street, New York City