Artist Pandora Graessl’s Transportive “Amor Fati: When the Fire Bit Me” Exhibition
In an abandoned building in Mexico City, a mythic serpentine journey comes to life
In several rooms across three floors of an abandoned brick building, behind a small market in Mexico City, photographer and multidisciplinary artist Pandora Graessl‘s mythic exhibition, Amor Fati: When the Fire Bit Me, transports guests by way of serpentine photographic and sculptural works. The immersive installation—which plays with light and color, texture and material—contrasts several metaphoric pieces with their surprising surroundings. While the unexpected exhibition aligned with the Zona Maco art fair, it will continue to run through 20 February.
Amor Fati is the first solo Latin American exhibition for Graessl, a French-Swiss artist who resides in Mexico City. In the exhibit, she conjures up inkjet prints of hyper-realistic scans of snakes and floral arrangements and forges twisting bronze sculptures. Each work is an exploration of the mythic and natural worlds, and converses with the raw edifice and the views beyond every windowless frame.
Graessl, who founded her own creative studio after working Bureau Betak and Management Artists, utilized the power of collaboration for several pieces in Amor Fati. In one spellbinding corner room, the artist pairs her “La Curandera” chair, crafted from stainless steel, leather and python skin, with a mirror surrounded by python skins of various colors—all set to tangles of vegetation. Both pieces were produced in conjunction with Paolo Angelucci, and will be produced in unique editions, by demand. The exhibition also features two carpets developed in collaboration with Joel Fear, each composed of cotton, microfiber polyester and luxury chenille yarn.
Other collaborators include composer and cellist Patrick Belaga and audio company X-Pan, both who contribute to the exhibition’s multi-sensory centerpiece, a suspended sound sculpture set with colorful candles. Hosted in a sprawling garage, beside the dismantled parts of a red Corvette (the latter not a part of the exhibition), the sculpture’s magnitude, flickering flames and drone-like soundscape ensnare attendees.
Living elements (like floral moments or plastic-wrapped shrubbery) and representations of life (including imagery of flowers) infiltrate each room. Throughout, Graessl taps into dreamlike wonder and guides attendees from room to room asking them to question what they encounter. There’s something haunting about Amor Fati and something haunted about the venue. And it’s this logic that allows all of the parts to work in service to one another—or consume each other—much like an ouroboros.
Amor Fati is open to the public from 10AM to 8 pm, and by appointment, at Avenida Thiers 231, Anzures, Miguel Hidalgo, 11590, Mexico City.
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