(Gold)
Fountain PKW
The collaboration between Cesare Villari and Sylvie Fleury marks a striking
fusion of design, conceptual art, and aesthetic provocation. Created in 2004,
this body of work combines Villari’s technical mastery in porcelain craftsmanship
with Fleury’s bold, glamorous approach—an artist known for her pop-luxury
style and her subversive take on fashion, consumerism, and object fetishism.
The work consists of two reinterpreted tire models
— “Omnitrac-MSD / mixed service” – 7 large-scale pieces (125 cm diameter
x 50 cm height)
— “Cargo Ultra Grip” – 5 smaller pieces (65 cm diameter x 20 cm height)
Each sculpture is crafted from a porcelain blend and hand-painted with
24kt pure gold, transforming utilitarian industrial objects into precious icons
of contemporary art. Both models are authorized reproductions of original
GoodYear tires, symbols of strength, mobility, and technology—here reimagined
as luxurious relics, stripped of function and imbued with cultural and symbolic
weight.
Fleury, through her language of the ready-made and her ongoing exploration
of femininity and desire, intervenes in these traditionally masculine, industrial
forms—coating them in gold and granting them an aura that oscillates between
sacred and pop. Villari, in turn, pushes artisanal technique to its limits, replicating
the intricate details and textures of real tires with striking accuracy in a medium
as fragile as porcelain.
The result is a collection that challenges ideas of identity, value, display, and
transformation. These sculptures—at once monumental and delicate—are
bold statements that play with the codes of power, luxury, and desire. They sit
perfectly within Sylvie Fleury’s artistic trajectory while opening new ground for
contemporary sculpture through the lens of high craft and conceptual irony.
Sylvie Fleury
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, Munich,
December 17, 2003–January 31, 2004
2004, Silvie Fleury
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