Flora Mayo was Alberto Giacometti’s first great love. The two met while studying art in Paris. He became a world-famous artist; she fell into oblivion.
Flora Mayo was Alberto Giacometti’s first great love. The two met while studying art in Paris. He became a world-famous artist; she fell into oblivion.
In Giacometti’s official biography, Flora Mayo plays only a secondary role. A black and white photograph shows the two young artists standing beside an unfired clay bust that Mayo had made of her lover. The artist duo Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler were so captivated by the image that they conducted research on Flora Mayo and developed their findings into a film installation. The artists discovered that the relationship between Giacometti and Mayo resulted in a son, who knew nothing about his famous father or his mother’s artistic past. In their 2-channel video installation Flora (2017), which is currently on view in the Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Hubbard / Birchler combine documentary footage with fictional scenes. The reconstructed Bust (2017) is presented together with the original photo.
Artist duo Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler have been working together since 1990 and are, like Mayo and Giacometti, a couple. In their narrative film installation, they cross the boundaries between reality and fiction, into which memories, wishes and autobiographical experiences flow. The Sammlung Goetz, which already includes important works by the artist couple such as the trilogy Gregor’s Room (1998/99), Eight (2001) and House with a Pool (2004), funded the development of Flora through its early acquisition.
When working on the film Hubbard and Birchler have found the missing puzzle piece - Mayo’s son, David. He knew his mother from a different side, when she had left Paris, set her art aside and settled in California, working at a factory. Flora weaves together these two distinct existences: in Paris, as an artist; and in California, as mother and factory worker, in the two-channel video, projected on opposing sides of a large screen in the Swiss Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2017.
Above: Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler
Flora 2017
Synchronized double-sided film installation with sound
30 mins, loop
Installation view: Swiss Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017
Courtesy of the artists, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York,
and Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin
Photo credit: Ugo Carmeni
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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