November 2024: Meet the Artists
dach& zephir, Christiane Peschek, and Leo Marz
dach&zephir
dach&zephir's practice stems from multiple dialogues: First, the dialogue between themselves, which is nourished by the intersection of their geographical origins, Guadeloupe and the Paris region. Then, between design, research and visual arts. Then, from a decolonial angle, that of cultures. They strive to reveal their porosity through the stories and obiects they excavate or invent. Trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, dach&zephir operate first and foremost in the field of design. They produce stools, benches, baskets and knives inspired not from a Creole imaginary but rather from the heritage of the French West Indies they have investigated. These objects solely represent the material part of a much larger production of forgotten and hypothetical knowledge: Creole craft traditions as well as the cultural exchanges between islands, with the French mainland or the rest of the world. It is according to rhizome or archipelago thinking that dach&zephir conceive their work. They weave narratives by blending stories.
The obiects designed by dach&zephir, mostly presented in a European context, embody a concept by Édouard Glissant, which infuses all of dach&zephir's practice. The "whole-world" is "our universe as it changes and endures by exchanging and at the same time the 'vision' we have of it."* Never static, their work accepts the idea of a world in transformation that is also told through the necessary narratives of creolization.
Christiane Peschek
Christiane’s residency is in partnership with Untitled Art, Miami Beach
Christiane Peschek's work exists in a "phygital" world, exploring techno-shamanism, cosmology, and identity expansion within an internet-influenced hyperreality. She creates immersive experiences that confront the audience with their own consciousness through a combination of sensory stimuli, including the deliberate use of WiFi radiation, olfactory stimulation, sound frequencies, and visual elements. Her aim is to foster a sense of connection with technology without requiring complex technical knowledge.
Peschek views her work as a reflection and interpretation of the digital zeitgeist, and its physical and emotional impacts on humans in a post-internet reality. Her works are found in collections such as the ING DiBa Art Collection, Artothek des Bundes Belvedere21, the Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, and the Kupferstichkabinett Vienna. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including recent shows at Museum MARTA Herford, Kunstmuseum Celle, Benaki Museum Athens, NRW Forum Düsseldorf, and Kunsthaus Graz. She lives and works in the cloud.
Leo Marz
Multidisciplinary artist Leo Marz (b. 1979, Zapopan, Mexico) works in traditional and unconventional means of art-making, including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, performance, sound, and installation. Through his art practice, Marz explores the connections between history, technology, objecthood, and subjecthood in modern society. His work examines the fragmentary nature of a world in constant flux and generates environments that encourage viewers to contemplate interconnected and contradictory aspects of life.
By taking fragments from reality and recontextualizing them to form alternate worlds, Marz questions how we create and understand physical and imagined spaces. He elevates his compositions by poetically ascribing them with titles of found text. Whether the environments and references Marz depict are found in media, his own living spaces, or public zones, he abstracts them to create wrinkles in time and space. In 2024, Marz participated in two seminal exhibitions: They Stare At You From Billions of Years Ago at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) and Pintura contemporánea en México at Museo Amparo (Puebla, Mexico). Marz's most recent museum solo exhibition was The Ancient Incident at Mexico City's Museo Jumex in 2022.
