There is a beguiling light-heartedness to Stefania Carlotti’s work. Yet, while at first encounter it appears bright and whimsical, the viewer is quickly escorted into the uncanny, into a dreamlike and occasionally grotesque ambiance, into a personal and collective psyche of the weird. Utilizing an economy of means, the low-tech and the handcrafted, Carlotti wields her arsenal of understated tools to craft narratives that transcend the mundane.
Traversing sculpture, video and writing, her work teeters between a tongue-in-cheek observation of her physical surroundings – whether they be the mountainous landscapes of Switzerland, where she lives, or the bar stool upon which she sits when hanging out with friends; an amalgamation of ordinary activities – going to the grocery store, eating out, and references to cinema – being partial to the western, but sci-fi horror also has its place; pop culture; and a coy critique of the modest perversions of our time. Each of these different components come together, only to be shuffled, rearranged, exploded into the makings of parallel universes that inhabit a fuzzy, sometimes ironic interplay between reality, fiction and memorial associations.
The ambiguity of the real and unreal extends into Carlotti’s choice of materials, often fragile and ephemeral, and usually made to appear to be something else. Central to an exploration of the ambiguous is the use of papier-mâché, the material of fiction par excellence. In Carlotti’s production of objects, papier-mâché transcends its physical form to sometimes appear as ceramic, sometimes as imposing landscape. Serving as a conduit between reality and fiction, papier-mâché encases Carlotti’s sculptures in a layer of surrealism, infusing them with ironic realities. In turn, icons of permanence and monumentality like mountains and castles are reimagined as delicate, ephemeral constructs. Through fragile mediums, these works challenge conventional notions of grandeur, inviting introspection into themes of transience and endurance.The premise of Carlotti’s exhibition at the Café des Glaces seems straightforward enough. The show’s title, Great Expectations, directly references the novel by Charles Dickens, which tells the story of orphan Pip’s journey from poverty to gentleman. It’s a classic example of the Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age tale about one’s journey from youth to adulthood through trials, errors, and experiences to arrive at an awareness of self and social integration. There’s a simplicity to the novel; a clear narrative arc that charts the transformative power of personal growth and self-realization. Such clarity somehow finds its place in the work of Carlotti, but only when an apparent simplicity is so exaggerated that it becomes an enigma. Perhaps, then, Great Expectations the exhibition is better suited to Kathy Acker’s Great Expectations, her 1980s postmodern appropriation of Dickens’ novel. Acker’s punk labyrinth of narrative distortions, unreliable storytelling, and indiscernibility between reality and fantasy seem more at home with the work of Carlotti, rather than Dickens’ thematic grandeur.
In the main room of the Café des Glaces five papier-mâché mountains, adorned with paint, mirrors and glitter, rest on bar tables that belong and bear witness to the exhibition site’s former function as a cafè, ballroom and hotel. Each mountain’s terrain is crossed with impossible paths, any desire to reach the summit hindered by broken stairs, landslides and melting trails, which instead offer an inevitability of interrupted journeys, of thwarted expectations. They’re different mountains, different scenarios, different routes, but each with the same ending. Sculptures of impossibility stand tall, embodying the essence of perpetual journeys and metaphysical introspection. Like a bildungsroman in sculptural form, each mountain signifies a path fraught with challenges and enlightenment, inviting the viewer to navigate the labyrinth of existence.
Still in the main room, a video screen sits above the Café’s original bar counter. The screen mimics an ordinary TV set, one that can regularly be found in bars, running all day long but invariably with the sound turned down. On the screen we see ENT (Extraordinary New Talent) (2024), a new video Carlotti produced in occasion of the exhibition. ENT presents the TV talk show Betty’s Secrets, in which the presenter, Betty, hosts the director and actors of the smash-hit film Karaoke of Blood (which, in actuality, only exists as a trailer of a horror-filled odyssey – a farewell party tinged with macabre karaoke renditions in gruesome cinematic spectacle, that blurs the boundaries between the tangible and the surreal). In ironic hyperbole, Carlotti exaggerates classic talk show tropes: the live broadcast, the feigned familiarity of the host with her celebrity guests; the chattiness to the audience; the storytelling, confessions, back stories and inside scoops. It all goes according to plan, as one would expect, until the end of the show when Betty and her guests play a game in which the film’s director must throw a cake in someone’s face. Against all expectations, she throws it into her own.
In a second, smaller room, from which a set of stairs leads to the upper floor, things become more fragmented. Untitled (2024), a vertical video projected onto the surface of a papier-mâché wall, unveils a spectral journey where flickering candlelight illuminates a labyrinthine path towards the unknown. From the scaling of a mountain to the domesticity of climbing a flight of stairs, the interplay of threat and trepidation unfolds within seemingly abandoned bedrooms and scenes of forgotten narratives, inviting the viewer to forge a path through an eternal loop.
And here’s the paradox. We embark on the journey, with the greatest of expectations, only to find ourselves in the endless loop of going nowhere. But venturing through realms of the absurd, the fragile and the ironic, Carlotti challenges conventional expectations and reshapes our reality. By marrying narrative complexities with a distortion of the ordinary, she invites the viewer to immerse themselves in a microcosm of tongue-in-cheek reflection and infinite possibilities.
Adrienne Drake
