The Magic Bul­let - group show - TORRI - Paris

through February 16th 2013

Je­re­my Shaw, Rob Pruitt, Ge­ne­ral Idea, Ber­ger&Ber­ger

On view for the first time in France, Magi© Bul­let (1992), is em­ble­ma­tic of the play­ful-​pop-​po­li­ti­cal work of Ca­na­dian trio Ge­ne­ral Idea. Floo­ding the gal­le­ry cei­ling with do­zens of he­lium-​in­fla­ted sil­ver pills, the work mir­rors the phy­si­cal reac­tion to drugs with the hear­ty bal­loons shrin­king over time to pro­gres­si­ve­ly lose their weight­less­ness and fall, one by one, to the floor. Vi­si­tors are in­vi­ted to take these inert, fal­len en­ve­lopes with them when they go, tur­ning ano­ther page in the life of the Magi© Bul­let. The “get­ting high then down” me­ta­phor is also a re­flec­tion of the dis­se­mi­na­tion of HIV that so pro­found­ly mar­ked the gay com­mu­ni­ty in the late XX^th cen­tu­ry, clai­ming the lives of two mem­bers of Ge­ne­ral Idea.

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