If you like it, thank you. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. Enjoy anyway Paola Pivi

aluminum, resin, plastic crystals
L 1427 x W 25 x H 670 cm

Paola Pivi has created a striking installation for La Criée Contemporary Art Center consisting of a vast steel structure that stretches from floor to ceiling in the large exhibition hall. The installation forms a grid-like structure entirely covered with thousands of multicolored crystals that resemble precious stones. This grid-like structure is punctuated by suspended abstract modules that may evoke drops of water. The work is titled If you like, thank you. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. Enjoy anyway.

Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors find themselves face-to-face with this monumental work, which oscillates between the flat surface of a painting and the three-dimensional form of a sculpture. Beyond these classifications, the work evokes perceptions that are deliberately contradictory and paradoxical:
– The simplicity and lightness of the work contrast with the monumentality of the installation;
– The visual allure of the multicolored beads gives way to a sense of menace created by the grid forming a wall;
– The colorful space, despite itself, carries a sense of shadow and sadness;
– The flashy superficiality stands in contrast to a latent sense of muted violence.

As is often the case in Paola Pivi’s exhibitions, the narrative is never obvious. The initial sense of surprise gives way to an analysis that draws the viewer into an atypical, absurd, bizarre, and extravagant world.
The artist enjoys creating improbable situations for viewers to experience.
Everything then becomes possible.