They're staring into space. All by themselves, although they face each other or sit together in groups. No relation, expression or emotion. They don't act, they wait. For what? For something to happen? For something that will save them from themselves?
Instead of looking into each other eyes, they stare on the floor, pass each other. There's no relation between the individuals underlining specifically the impression of isolation. They're standing close to each other but staying strangers, their composition is staged. It doesn't stand out but upon closer inspection you can see one person not staring into space. The person is staring right at the observer. Again, though, no relation, the observer doesn't get lost in the picture. It's a transfigured type of stare, a passive one. The individuals on the pictures tolerate the observation, they're used to it. They don't care anymore.
The interiors in Cyril Massimelli's pictures appear as movie settings. The images are structured through the light-dark contrasts of a warm designer lamp glare, combining the individuals in groups. More designer furniture suggests luxury. The carpet's pattern, the objects (lamps and an aquarium) are carefully selected and arranged down to the detail. While the rooms are filled with people and possessions they seem to be empty. Everything is in perfect order, you can see no used ashtray, no toppled glass - nothing that might disturb the observer's view. Massimelli's subtle and smooth color application evens out the support's structure, enhancing the mood of clinical-like sterility emphasizing the inanimateness. The characters appear to be the extra on a movie set waiting for the protagonist. Cyril Massimelli is as much of a painter as a dramaturge. The picture's details that first seem irrelevant emerge as tantalizing.
"Art is the represntation of the world around me through the world in me." This Edward Hopper quote could just as well be by Cyril Massimelli. Both artists share a particular interest in architecture, photography and, notably, staging. The most obvious similarity is that both Hopper and Massimelli express an emotion with their pictures. A generation's attitude towards life that both capture and reflect in the atmosphere of their creations.
Since Cyril Massimelli moved from Paris to Dresden he has been traveling throughout Germany. In piles of sketchbooks he captured everything that he experienced on his travels just like a diary. He collected ideas and impressions in trains, bars, and clubs.
In the same way as Hopper, Massimelli manages to express the emotion of the individual. While Hopper maintains to be a big influence on American photography, Massimelli's perspective evolved out of photography. However, he breaks down its linear perspective. "The perspective in photography is a lie", says Massimelli. "As if you were statically looking at the world with just one eye. It has nothing to do with the human perception of reality."
Despite the modernity of the design and the attitude towards life of the works, Massimelli's "Lounges" series transports a sense of the past. It may be the stereotypical brunettes' classic haircuts, the drapery of their dresses, their pose, or it may be their slender but feeble build with collapsed shoulders. Through all these details the Old Masters, as well as the idea of beauty passed down through time, emerges the modern interior design of the bar scenes. Cyril Massimelli's pictures reveal that not only Modern Art is a product of its own history. With the means of art, Massimelli portrays people in their environment beyond their current state of evolution. "Lounges" defeats the linearity of time and replaces it with a coexistence of different fashions and ages.
Carolin Modes / Esther Niebel
