ALIX MARIE
STYX

25.11.2022 – 26.02.2023

French artist ALIX MARIE's latest work "Styx" will be presented at PHOXXI, the temporary House of Photography at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, from 25 November. The artist ALIX MARIE (*1989 in Bobigny, France) works in the media of photography, sculpture and installation. In London, she studied at Central Saint Martins College and the Royal College of Art and was a resident at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is interested in photography as an object and in its potential of materiality and three-dimensionality.

In the gallery of PHOXXI, MARIE will present the immersive installation "Styx". In her latest work, the French artist uses the myth of Styx to explore the intersection between the body and its representation and experiments with the expanded possibilities of photography.

In Greek mythology, Styx is an oceanid, a deity and a river that forms the boundary between the earth and the afterlife. She is the daughter of darkness and night and the mother of strength and victory. In this exhibition, the deity appears in two forms: First, as an immersive labyrinth installation that explores the hollow spaces of the body and the ambiguous duality of inner and outer space and protective environments.

In the other spaces, the deity takes on a human form. In the darkness, the goddess appears in the centre of the room, kneeling, naked, her gaze boldly fixed on the viewer. Embodied by Marie's long-time collaborator, performer and writer Nina Boukhrief, the voice of the goddess surrounds the space, reflecting on death, light and life.

Influenced by the context of a pandemic, MARIE reflects on loss and the lack of movement. Ultimately, Styx explores the fragility of the body and the contemporary world. The work was originally developed by Photoworks and the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, 2021.

With French artist ALIX MARIE and US photographer PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA are two artistic positions in focus at PHOXXI this autumn that use a variety of artistic methods to explore the human body, origin and gender.