APT8: David Medalla creates situations that can never be repeated

 
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David Medalla, The Philippines/UK b.1942, Artist / Adam Nankervis, Australia/Germany b.1973, Photographer / Homage to the Paris Commune – Montmartre Paris 2013 / Documentation of collaborative performance / Photograph on linen paper, ed. of 3 + 2 AP / Purchased 2015. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artist

During my first sojourn in Paris in the spring of 1960 I went to Montmartre, the site where the Paris Commune started in 1871.

A few days later I went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery where some of the heroic Communards were buried.

Those two visits moved me deeply.

I made a painting in honour of the Communards.

I learned that the day when the Paris Commune was founded, the First of May, is commonly called the Day of the Cherries.

In 2010 to celebrate the Paris Commune I took two fresh cherries and I went inside the Louvre.

Held up by two young men, I placed the cherries with white dry glue paste on the nipples of the Venus de Milo.

A few years later, when Adam Nankervis and I were in Montmartre, we created an impromptu performance using masks with cherries in Homage to the Paris Commune.

I dream some day people wearing masks will go from Montmartre to the Louvre and cover the Venus de Milo with cherries.

David Medalla

David Medalla is a unique figure in the history of twentieth-century art. His unpredictable and playful approach to art-making has made him difficult to categorise, but he is increasingly recognised as a significant figure in the development of participatory art, creating objects and situations that can never be repeated and continually change.

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David Medalla, The Philippines/UK b.1942, Artist / Adam Nankervis, Australia/Germany b.1973, Photographer / How far can you run with the world behind you (from ‘Mask’ series, London) 2014 / Documentation of collaborative performance / Photograph on linen paper, ed. of 3 + 2 APs / Purchased 2015. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © The artist

The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT)
is the Gallery’s flagship exhibition focused on the work of Asia, the Pacific and Australia.
21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016

Exhibition Founding Sponsor: Queensland Government
Exhibition Principal Sponsor: Audi Australia