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TEMPORARY CLOSURE. In view of the new safety measures regarding exhibition spaces, Diagonale will be closed until further notice. Visit our website and social media accounts regularly to follow the latest developments.
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Leisure, "Second Image: Beginning of Summer. In the garden of a wine tavern", 2020
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WHAT IS THE WILL OF LOVE ?
LEISURE 17.09 - 31.10.20 Leisure entrusts the Diagonale gallery with “What is the will of love?”, a personal proposal imagined around the play “Wie man wird, was man ist: Lebensgeschichten” (“How to Become Who You Are: Life Stories”) [1] by Lina Loos. Founded by artists Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley, the duo proposes a thinking of the female or even human condition through a formal abstraction of this autobiographical piece’s acts. In this theatrical work, the Viennese writer and actress Lina Loos [2], who was born in 1882 and died in 1950, stages an emancipation of her state of women-object through the portrayal of the main character, Ali [3]. Moving through a set first designed by others for her and then by her, she offers an account of the physical and psychological confinement she experienced during her short marriage to architect Adolph Loos up until the point where she asserts her autonomy, drawing on ideas considered radical at the time, such as sexual or creative freedom and motherhood outside of marriage. Drawing from this literary material and the issues it raises, Leisure displays, throughout the Diagonale space, six collages printed on fabric and interspersed with sculptures. Topped with short text extracts from Lina Loos’ stage directions, each piece of fabric crystalizes an act of the play and features: drawings of the set, typical photographs from the period, samplings from the duo’s previous pictorial work and images from 20th century women authors. For their part, the sculptures highlight the protagonist’s internal journey, her transition from one reflective state to another, and her birth as an active subject. Navigating the space between organic and inorganic – through their formal compositions or asperities – they also imagine the meeting between the title of Loos’ work “How To Become Who You Are” and that of the exhibit: “What is the will of love?”. The character of Ali, using the latter question, attempts to break down the barriers that exist in love, and by extension, within systemic norms at play: “Love wants to grow, expand. It wants to include animals, plants, all things, it wants to embrace the whole world”[4]. She opens up the critical perspective of the female and human condition to that of the living being, and in doing so surpasses the limits of her own individuality to embrace a fragmented reflection regarding this newly-found renaissance. Within this perspective, Leisure materializes an echo to contemporary issues and the confinement sustained over the last few months. A singular space-time that has led them to interrogate social and societal frameworks as we know them: “What could our next steps look like if they were based on Ali’s question of ‘What is the will of love?’ And what if we met the world anew with a perspective of changed borders and with the priorities of a ‘love for all’ that is ecological, intersectional, and collaborative?”. [5] Chloé Grondeau/ Translation by Dominique Bernier-Cormier 𝘐𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦, 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 4 𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵, 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺. This project has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. 
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