31/5

« A man’s real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor. » - Alexander Smith

And memory is certainly what Umut Yasat holds dearest. The stacks that make up Der Stapel are full of it. The objects that Yasat owned, bought, created, found, sometimes cherished, now pile up in his sculptures, thus taking their often well-deserved, sometimes premature retirement. Since 2014, the German artist has been working on this life project; he is getting rid of everything that daily life inflicts on us and all the material constraints to which we mechanically bend.

Der Stapel is the witness of a moment, of a slice of life, of an era as well; these architectural collections of urban remnants poetically evoke the materiality of the passing of time. When one pile reaches his own size, Yasat begins another one. This is the only constraint that the artist living in a substantial destitution has set for himself. These accumulations, which reflect the mutations of a mainly urban life, are also reminiscent of the damaging consequences of mass consumption.

With Der Stapel, a series of chronologically incrementally numbered works, the artist lays himself bare through what could be considered a succession of self-portraits, on a human scale, in which he delivers his ordinary and intimate life in all humility. No matter the monetary value of the elements that make up his work. To free oneself from a sentimental object whose memory may be more important than the object itself, or to restore interest in a plastic wrapping that no longer has any use, if only for its simple existence; there are many opportunities to fill up the current pile. Each component is a positive energy that impregnates Der Stapel.

For Yasat, there is no such thing as garbage; there are obsolete or now useless objects for which the artist feels compassion. How could they evoke so little consideration that they would simply end up abandoned? Yasat benevolently breaks the idea of the values preached by society, he upsets the scale of these values.

“31/5” is Umut Yasat’s first solo exhibition in France. It is the 31st presentation of Der Stapel, composed of five piles.