Ballet Mécanique

A century ago, society was changing as rapidly and radically as it is in today’s digital age. Accelerating communication, production, and the circulation of people, goods, and ideas brought about a new understanding of the world in the aftermath of World War I; artists responded to this transformation with both anxiety and excitement. Freed from the constraints of tradition, modern artists developed innovative painting strategies that reflected this shift in perception.

Artists such as Robert Delaunay and Gino Severini disrupted conventions like depth and illusionism in response to the new forms and rhythm of the modern city, thus they presented the act of seeing as a fragmented experience. Delaunay’s Champs de Mars: La Tour Rouge fragments the iconic form of the Eiffel Tower, demonstrating how modern life, particularly the accelerating urban environment, produced new and often fractured modes of seeing. Picturesque landscapes could no longer adequately convey the rhythm of the modern metropolis.

The human body, too, could no longer be perceived as whole and intact. This mechanized and destructive world war made visible the wounded and dismembered bodies returning from the front; the fragmented body became a symbol for understanding a fragmented world. Surrealists such as Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, and Salvador Dalí fetishized body parts in their imagery, isolating eyes, hands, and legs. A more realist approach can be seen in the striking and unsettling watercolor drawings of Ivan Albright’s Medical Sketchbook, produced during his service as a medical illustrator in the war.

The mind, like the body, began to be perceived as fragmented. Stanisław Witkiewicz’s psychologically driven self-portraits and photographs created by breaking and recombining glass negatives conveyed the sensation of a fractured psyche. The artistic expression of dreams and mental imagery reached its catharsis in cinema.

Designed by Fernand Léger and filmed and photographed by Dudley Murphy (with likely contributions from Man Ray), Ballet mécanique presents the rhythmic interaction between human and object. Léger was profoundly affected by his experience in World War I, particularly a mustard gas attack; after 1917, his fascination with mechanical technology became central to his work. His only film, Ballet mécanique, exemplifies the juxtaposition of human and machine: eyes and mouths replace gears and pendulums; a woman’s endless ascent of a staircase replaces pumping pistons; legs replace the function of clocks. The kaleidoscopic convergence of faces and domestic objects introduced an aesthetic distinct from contemporary commercial cinema and paved the way for revolutionary films such as Metropolis and Limite.

This exhibition addresses the rhythmic interaction between human and object and the fragment–mechanical relationship in parallel with the transformative impact of digital elements on contemporary artistic production. My selection brings together works that engage with three-dimensional techniques and explore fragmentation and mechanical rhythm. Referencing the film Ballet mécanique, created a century ago, this exhibition emphasizes how recurring wars and migrations throughout the history of civilization have also fractured the human psyche.

Fahrettin Aykut / Curator