After drawing, it’s collage’s turn to experience a resurgence of interest and to make waves, both with the criteria for its validation - i.e. commodification - and from a plastic, aesthetic point of view. Books and exhibitions are now devoted to this medium. Prices soar, ratings are awarded, but the question remains: what makes a good collage? We can go back in time: the Bauhaus, Dada, punk... Yet we still don’t really know how to answer. Still today, even when framed, collages retain the violence of the cutter blade or the ripping apart, and leave hanging the question of the right to borrow, to create from the images of others, with the mere slash of a blade and a little bit of glue.
In this artist’s book, remixed by the editor for this digital version, Barbara Breintenfellner shares a selection of her collages made between 2006 and 2011. A few recurrent topics: animals, human bodies (preferably female), geometry, and images marked by time - the 1960s/70s... - like souvenir boards. A form of nostalgia appears, then finds itself roughed up a little by a strong rhythm and a few violent sequences, as we read along. One story, or several - her own / ours / yours? - like disturbing flashes, strangely beautiful. No commentary, no introduction... A book of collages, moving and radical. A path into the disturbing universe of Barbara Breintenfellner, an Austrian artist to whom Confort Moderne dedicated an important one-woman exhibition in autumn 2011.
The quality of the scans and of the screen add to the pleasure of these images - complex, but with such unmistakable presence. A new, intimate reading mode. Astonishing. Refreshing.