Les Rencontres de Montmarte, Paris (FR)

February 3- 5, 2023

Open Studios as part of the Art Explora Residency

"i need you"

Luki von der Gracht’s poetic intervention “i need you” includes an ongoing poetry reading and a multimedia-installation that questions consumerism. The projection is a dia show of 30 drawings that include statements and requests (Hold Me, Fill Me Up, Let Me), aswell as questions (What Shall I Do With You, When Are You Here). The inter-personal themes of the drawings are asepcts of desire, the body and belonging.

The video is projected on a variety of food products, like vegetables, M&Ms, Kellogs Cornflakes, Lipton Ice Tea and Tictacs. The colours of the drawings rival with the eye-catching packacking of the advertisement. The curtain of the studio is the background for this setting and makes the scenario thus more theatrical and dramatic.

The emotional statements of the drawings change their meaning by this composition and become less about a craving for touch and body but about a more urgent and existential need for nurture and/or a desire for brand-name products.