Friday 25 March 2011

SICO CARLIER 'MARQUEE 2' AT WHITE CUBICLE TOILET GALLERY





special guests from Paris, Federico and Philippe cutting the ribbon




Host of the night HRH Princess Julia


Dale Cornish, who did a special abstract sound set for the night


Madame Esther Planas


Dame Ximena Garrido Lecca


visitor from Peru, gallerist from Revolver, Renzo Gianella


MARQUEE 2, at Le Cubicule Blanc an installation by Sico Carlier
White Cubicle Toilet Gallery
George and Dragon, 2 Hackney Road, London E2
Thursday 24 of March 2011, 8PM to 11 PM
Host of the night: HRH Princess Julia
DJ of the night: Laurent Chaumet
Special sound set by Dale Cornish

Old Compton street is, was and has been a recognised meeting place for exiles, noteworthy being those from France. After the suppression in Paris of the Paris Commune, the poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud often frequented drinking haunts there. The Admiral Duncan pub on Old Compton street was the target of the most devastating homophobic attack in London’s history when on April 30, 1999 a nail bomb went off on what was a busy Bank Holiday evening. It was one of three nail bomb attacks that took place that day. In The Admiral Duncan three people were killed, while 86 were injured. The explosions were set off by David Copeland, then 22, whose objective it was to wage a war against ethnic minorities and gay people in Britain.

In the summer of 1999 Sico Carlier was asked to make a piece for the now disappeared Soho space the ‘Pineal Eye’ on Broadwick Street, a street parallel to Old Compton, a few blocks away from the bomb site. “I felt I could not do anything than and there without that horror in mind, and made a piece for them entitled “MARQUE(E)”, consisting of a lot of rusty nails and the remaining tissue of a shopfront marquee. At the time my reasoning behind the work, or why I made it, was not emphasized, it seemed not appropriate to do so. The actual object, which surely must have shown up fierce on X-ray, travelled unnoticed as hand luggage through security on my trip to London. In general it can be said people visiting Pineal Eye took a liking to my piece and it was often referred to as a 'Bijou', suspended as it was in a floor-less room with mirrored walls.”

The invitation to Sico Carlier to do an exhibition at the White Cubicle Toilet Gallery made him rediscover and re-invent Marquee as a new piece: MARQUEE 2. The issues that informed the piece still present in 2011 East End London, which has recently been subject to a series of homophobic attacks, including the appearance of posters and stickers carrying de-contextualised quotes from the Qur’an with text and a logo calling for a “Gay Free Zone”. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12526820 and http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/03/16/east-end-gay-pride-cancelled.

In a sad postscript to the The Admiral Duncan tragedy, John Morley, the former manager of the pub who survived the bomb attack, was attacked by a group of youths on London’s South Bank on the night of October 30, 2004. John suffered multiple injuries in the attack and died later in hospital. On 14 December 2005 the aggressors, aged 21, 18, 17 and 15, were convicted at the Old Bailey of manslaughter.

Sico Carlier is an artist of Dutch origin, among many things he is also the publisher of cult Currency Magazine
http://www.sicocarlier.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/sicocarlier
http://www.post-editions.com/?page=currency

THE WHITE CUBICLE TOILET GALLERY measures 1.40 by 1.40 metres, is located within the Ladies Toilet of the George and Dragon, and works with no budget, staff or boundaries. White Cubicle presents a discerning programme of local and international manifestations as an antidote to London’s sometimes extremely commercial art scene. Past exhibitions have included the work of Deborah Castillo, Gregorio Magnani, Butt Magazine, Federico Herrero, Terence Koh, i-Cabin, Steven Gontarski, Pixis Fanzine/Princess Julia and Hanah, General Idea and avaf, Basso Magazin, Carl Hopgood, Giles Round, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Superm, (Brian Kenny and Slava Mogutin), Elkin Calderon, Wolfgang Tillmans, Calvin Holbrook/Hate Magazine, Husam el Odeh, Simon Popper, Fur, Dik Fagazine, Rick Castro/Abravanation, Jean Michel Wicker, Noki, Ellen Cantor, Karl Holmqvist, Julie Verhoeven, Aldo Chaparro, Esther Planas, Nikos Pantazopoulos, Luis Venegas, Twinklife, Rocky Alvarez, Benedetto Chirco, STH Magazine, Elmgreen & Dragset, Francesc Ruiz...
website: http://www.whitecubicle.org
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103491142620&ref=ts

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