Monster Chetwynd, «Head-Less-Ness», Cabaret Voltaire, 2023, Photo: Philipp Hänger
Monster Chetwynd, «Head-Less-Ness», Cabaret Voltaire, 2023, Photo: Philipp Hänger
Monster Chetwynd, «Head-Less-Ness», Cabaret Voltaire, 2023, Photo: Philipp Hänger
Monster Chetwynd, «Head-Less-Ness», Cabaret Voltaire, 2023, Photo: Philipp Hänger
Until October 20, 2024, Monster Chetwynd will host the exhibition «Head-Less-Ness» in the Artists' Bar. In a society shaped by rules on the one hand, and expectations on the other, it requires places that undermine everyday norms. Monster Chetwynd creates such spaces through her performances, images, and installations. She plays with masquerades, twists social rituals, diverts energies, creates hybrid beings, and juggles visual cultures from the Middle Ages to science fiction. The monstrous, carnivalesque and grotesque—with the exaggeration and absurdity, horror and humor—are always participants in her worlds. In Chetwynd’s art, these exaggerations function as a mind-expanding force. «Head-Less-Ness» gathers masks, corporeal fragments, bricolaged furniture and prints in the Artists’ Bar of the Dada house. The exhibition can be seen as a collection of theatrical props itching to be used and rearrange orders: Chairs as thrones, grimaces as icons, sculpted mouths as eyes. In the grotesque-carnivalesque, it is unclear where the body ends and the world begins. In the sociotope «bar», which levels and at the same time reverses social relations, a stimulating intervention.