Zoe Williams: Seasons in Hell
exhibition13th Organ Vida Festival
03/09–18/11/2024
Museum of Contemporary Art
Avenija Dubrovnik 17, Zagreb
Curators: Barbara Gregov, Lovro Japundžić, Lea Vene
Curatorial associate: Ana Škegro
Curatorial assistant: Ivana Završki
Design: Alma Šavar
Public relations: Inesa Antić
Photographers: 925 Studio, Samir Cerić Kovačević, Luka Pešun
Translation: Tihana Bertek
Hospitality: Tena Kovačić
Press and public relations: Inesa Antić
Main festival partner: Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb
Festival partners: Pogon – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth, FUTURES
Supported by: Creative Europe Programme, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb, Zagreb Tourist Board, Kultura Nova Foundation, Austrian Cultural Forum, French Institute in Croatia, TelepART, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland / Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Acknowledgments: Studio B-nula, Uramljivanje slika Ramasutra, Print studio Anula
Throughout each of these chapters, the artist has created an evolving ‘script’, dramatising interactions between set, body and object and ultimately the viewer, intertwining her key concerns around notions of power, desire, artifice, and consumption. These recurring themes and objects are imbued with a sense of theatricality inherent to the artist’s work, which turns the spaces they inhabit into stages for the intimate psychodramas that may or may not occur. The dramaturgy builds on a prolonged tension, the dynamic interplay between sensuality and repulsion, and a teasing anticipation, with desires seeming to linger just on the verge of fulfillment.
Seasons in Hell represents the final, declining act of the trilogy, capturing the slow decay of once decadent interiors and intimate selves. It seems to hint at the aftermath of dramatic events whose characters have vanished, yet their heady presence remains palpable in the space, transfigured into objects, scent and sound. The overall ambiance is simultaneously dark, theatrical, intoxicating, and eerie.
A dim, putrid-green light bathes the walls, while a haunting, at points overtly romantic soundtrack fills the room blending with a sweet, cloying musky scent. These elements insidiously creep into our ears and nostrils, heightening the sense of nausea, sickness, and decay lingering in the room. Our gaze is drawn to the room’s centerpiece: a seemingly lavish bed framed with luxurious satin curtains and eroticaly charged Polaroid prints. The scene is set for an intimate melodrama that seems to have already unfolded amid the stained dusk-mauve satin sheets. It is unclear if we are witnessing the remains of a solitary malaise, the aftermath of a lovers tryst or something altogether more sinister. Scattered throughout the vast space are lavishly grotesque ceramic sculptures, like strange clues or characters themselves. There are candy-colored piss pots, melting Rococo-styled shoes and boots, platters of disfigured body parts, blind mirrors, and unseeing eyes— all relics of repressed or unfulfilled desires, petrified smears of intention.
Zoe Williams’ solitary stage vividly captures fragments of intimacy — intense connections, permeable boundaries, smudges, and leakages—both literal and metaphorical—teetering on the fine line between fusion and contamination. It also witnesses painful disenchantment, loss, and alienation, with a crumbling melancholy that is overwhelming as much as it is unbearable.
Afterword:
Fondant, the exhibition and body of work that Seasons in Hell stems from, was a solo exhibition curated by and developed with the late Vincent Honoré and produced by Fræme, at Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2023. Vincent Honoré tragically passed away in November 2023. Williams wishes to dedicate this exhibition to his memory and thank him for his support, vision and incredible generosity of spirit. Vincent was a long term supporter and collaborator to Williams, they first began to work together in 2015, and worked together on a total of 6 projects over the 8 years.
Music: Fondant original score composed and performed by Vindicatrix
Scent: Carole Calvez, olfactory designer
Ceramics made at Studio Ernan Design, Albisola
All works courtesy of Ciaccia Levi, Paris-Milan and the artist.
Zoe Williams
(b. 1983) Lives and works between Marseille and London.
Her practice incorporates a wide range of mediums including installation, moving image, ceramics, drawing and performance and is often collaborative in its process and outcome. Through her work she explores the non-verbal means of communication and the physical behaviours, which connect the unspoken, often seductive intentions underlying human relations. Through these explorations she creates an intimate dialogue around sex, power and desire, through a queered feminist lens.
She is represented by Ciaccia Levi Gallery, Paris-Milan, and has worked with a range of international institutions including: Fraeme, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, Somerset House, London, Tate St-Ives, The Roberts Institute of Art, London, DCA, Dundee, Spike Island, Bristol, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Mimosa House, London, Le Crédac, Ivry-Sur-Seine, Villa Arson, Nice and Fondazione Sandretto, Turin. Her work is part of the FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine La Méca collection in France and Collezione Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy.