"Sylvie Fleury"
Tema Celeste, Milan, February 2002, p.92
Housed in the central space of the MAGASIN's Rue, the bizarre automotive garage represented by the installation She-Devils on Wheels Headquarters II (2000) - with its chrome-plated sculptures representing high-powered machines - along with the videos set within huge metal containers and walls blazing with the mural Flames 12 (2001) embody the post-appropriation style of Sylvie Fleury, who exploits the universal stereotypes upheld by Western contemporary art in her investigations of masculine and feminine identity. Scenes from the video Zen & Speed (2001), in which she re-creates the winner's circle at a Formula One race, are emblematic of this exploration: The female beauties that populate the glossy world of motor sports are immortalized popping magnums of champagne in perfect slow motion. In the same ironic key, Fleury delves into the world of fashion, appropriating various brands so as to satirize the stereotype of femininity. This treatment is exemplified by the installation Trees Show the Bodily Form of the Wind (2001), which comprises pastel-colored walls and a display of the latest trendy shoes, just like in the classic Prada shops. This is an actual reconstruction, however, not a photographic replica as in the work of Andreas Gursky. In her more recent projects, Fleury abandons the chic banality of her earlier pieces and directs her gaze toward the "reappropriation" of the natural world and its governing laws. Influenced by the spectrosomatic theories of Pierre van Obberghen, the Belgian doctor and homeopath who investigated color therapies, Fleury attempts to isolate individuals' spiritual auras. In Matrix Installation (2001), the artist ponders the value of the psychophysical laws tied to the relationship between personality and color, as she also does in AVS 5, an abbreviation for "Aura Video Station"-a computer endowed with a particular software that enables visitors to discover their own auras in a setting furnished with unusual hospital-like furniture. Unlike in the video Expert Make-Up (2001), whose rosy and pastel hues immediately recall cosmetics, color is no longer an adornment but the very medium of self-discovery.
Paola Noé