Fanfare by Marlous Borm

Marlous Borm, Fanfare
13.11.2020, 4 — 8 pm
By appointment through 4.12.2020

Figura Avulsa is pleased to present Fanfare, an exhibition by Marlous Borm.

Dutch artist Marlous Borm’s ongoing series Letters are made under the guise of the larger body of work — Conversation Pieces — a reference to the Visconti film of 1974, in which a professor collects 18th century English paintings. These “Conversation Pieces” are informal group portraits in which friends are engaged in genteel conversation, or some other activity, very often outdoors. The phrase “Conversation Piece” later acquired a different meaning: it came to refer to objects that were perceived to be interesting enough to spark conversation about them. They provide a stimulus for prop-based conversation openers and deflected social pro-activeness from people to things.

Marlous deals with her inhibited nature by performing irreverently as a means to assuage her shyness around tension. She has an affinity for “conversation pieces” because they allow her to retreat from awkward situations and become a character in the discourse.

The works shown in the outdoors space of Figura Avulsa were produced in Lisbon, with crowbars bought locallly — they continue an ongoing investigation that focuses on contradictory bodily movements.

Marlous Borm is an artist based in New York City and Berlin.
She holds a BA from Gerrit Rietveld Academie and attended the MFA program at Bard College.
Her work has been exhibited at 247365 and 55 Gansevoort in New York, Par- adise Garage in Los Angeles and Cleopatra’s in Berlin. Borm co-curated ‘Evas Arche und der Feminist’ at Gavin Brown Enterprise and at the The Front Room at the Con- temporary Art Museum, St. Louis.