Mike Bourscheid takes aim at social mores by humourously exploring society's codes and behaviours (catalogue of the artist's exhibition for the Luxembourg Pavillon at the 57th Venice Biennale).
Thank you so much for the flowers is a tribute to the expectations and mishaps of social etiquette. Mike Bourscheid's perspective on the exhibition space—an actual apartment in the San Marco neighbourhood of Venice—is influenced by the presence of real tenants living and sleeping in the same architectural structure. Traces of the body emerge throughout the exhibition in the form of casts, reliefs, performances, videos and cookie-making. The Luxembourg Pavilion can be likened to a collection of story books, each of the pavilion's rooms comprising an intimate world drawing from art history, movie sets, haute couture, theatre costuming, disguises and armour. From 16th century forging techniques to hand-dyed silk pyjamas Mike Bourscheid embraces the craftsperson, and considers the lives of those who have carried and purveyed their traditional knowledge.
Published following the eponymous exhibition for the Luxembourg Pavillon, 57th International Exhibition of visual arts – La Biennale di Venezia, in 2017.
Mike Bourscheid was born in 1984 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg. With self-effacing playfulness, his costumes, altered domestic objects, musical pieces and performances recount cryptic stories about gender identification, familial inheritance and cultural history. Always, Bourscheid's work seeks to transform traditional understandings of art's role in our daily lives, from our loves to our routine work.
