Sylvie Blocher "Sylvie Blocher"

''Ambiguous and indescribably’ is how Sylvie Blocher (born 1953) describes the work that she showed this year at ARC in Paris and in the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. ‘They are not pedestals, not monuments and not gravestones, but at the same time all these connotations are there.’ Her installation was also more than just a static sculpture: there came smoke out, and a taped text could be heard. Asked whether she would call her work 'installations', she says: ‘I want something to come about between the spectator and the spot that is more than just a work in situ. I want to evoke mystery and tension, to make something take place.’ ‘Qu'une chose ait lieu’ is what she literally says, playing on the word lieu which means both place and spot. Language does play a role in Blochers work, but the total atmosphere she creates is always more than the sum of word and image. Mysterious forms, sometimes set out more like ritual objects than like sculptures, acquire a metaphorical function and refer both to a cool, industrial world as well as to a private universe which is meaningful only for those who share her visual language. Although the spectator feels like a voyeur in a different culture, Blochers apparent hermetism is still approachable. For her presentation in De Appel Sylvie Blocher has chosen three existing works and had made one new piece.’ (‘What takes place’, Newsletter De Appel, 3 (1988) 4.)