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May 7th – 16th
‘The extinction angle’ is the measure between the cleavage direction or habit of a mineral and its extinction. In mineralogy it helps define rocks and their origin.
It is odd in a way that an extinction angle appears and defines in a certain domains such as language, elements and rocks. These forms didn’t wait for language to come and appear; they needed the extinction evocation to come to life in the scientific world. As if some underlying fact was unknown to us.
At the exhibition, a 12 metre long table is placed with different plaster elements on it. These casts are former sheaths to forms that are not shown but stay present through their negative. Time is ever present – and slowly moves on. The process of photography echoes in the very title of the exhibition, where the plaster process mirrors evocations of minerals through technical drawings found at the abandoned building of the Geozavod (the former Geological Institute in Belgrade).
All the elements here seem to be in a constant state of survival. Forms not meant to be shown, not meant to be visible. There exists a necessity to dig deeper. To erode. To stop time by shining light on objects that are evanescent.
Catching fog in the mountain, keeping the trace of an accidental drawing on an image, choosing casts instead of sculptures : Gaëlle Leenhardt’s gaze acts as an extinction angle to define a marvellous fragilty in things and luckily for us making them appear in the realm of the art scene reminding us that – Time is on our side, yes it is (Jerry Ragovoy sung by Mick Jagger).
Text: Baptiste Mano
Photo: N. Ivanović