KVT – Monsieurs Plonk et Replonk

KVT has a very long look at the tres drole work by the Froidevaux Frères at a double venue show – L’Espace and Manzi and awards it 5 stars

The brothers Froidevaux, Plonk and Replonk, have replonked themselves in Hanoi from their European workshop

Exactly three years ago they had an enormously successful, initial plonking at L’Espace.

This year they have returned to L’Espace with another absurdly funny exposition of new and old work- and done an overflow into Manzi.

At L’Espace the images etc are presented with original French text with Vietnamese sub-captions, and at Manzi with English and Vietnamese sub-captions

To re-use a bit from my 2012 opinion piece: The plonks are two brothers, Hubert and Jacques Froidevaux (Plonk et Replonk) from the Swisss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds near the French border which is famous for lots of things not the least being Le Corbusier, watch making, and a favorable mention by Karl Marx in ‘Das Kapital’. For a while now the brothers have been using old postcards and wryly changing them a bit so that they become hilariously funny commentaries….as the brothers say…a lick of Gary Larson’s the Far Side cartoon satire, a pinch of Pi erre Desprouges black humor, and a generous stir of Monty Python

With additional text from PR circa 2015:

Well-known in both their place of birth Switzerland and neighboring country France as Plonk & Replonk, the artist duo/brothers Hubert Froidevaux (b. 1966) and Jacques Froidevaux (b. 1963) explore the endless possible uses of humour in various art forms: object, sculpture, installation, light box, postcard, graphic print etc. Characterized by a mix of black humor and wicked wit, which borders on the sarcastic and mischievous, Plonk & Replonk deal with worldwide relevant topics such as environment, globalization, education and consumerism with both criticality and lightheartedness, making their work brutally honest yet playful and fantastical.

The brothers portrayed below as the wizards of humor and satire in gnomish mode (more gnomish matters later!) Underneath is one of Replonk who was in Hanoi for the exhibition openings

The above is blurry due to Mr Replonk’s desire for a bit of anonymity from the press gnats but it fits in well with many of the brothers’ manipulated postcards that have blurred images in them such as MADHOUSE FOR VIRTUAL PSYCHOS

At L’Espace you are welcomed to the exhibition by a large fan posing a question: CHICHE?. Chiche, I assume, translates two ways as I dare you or as mean, parsimonious. The lit bomb descending upon the pearly teeth is soon going to put a nice dent in this chic image of conspicuous consumerism

Hand fans, perhaps used to satirize a central iconic association that older foreigners have with Vietnam (after they’ve dosed on movies in the vein of ‘Indochine’ and ‘The Lover’) are a feature of the show at L’Espace

I won’t spoil potential viewers’ fun by showing reverse sides

The show at L’Espace is titled PONG and PING which is aided by real ceramics of extremely absurdist, breakable ping pong bats and balls…some of which are in pieces

A theme running through both exhibitions are objet d’art of everyday Vietnamese objects, flip flop sandals and plastic coated bao hiem that, in themselves, have little value, but when cast in ceramic they, absurdly, become collectors’ items

The motorbike helmet is pointedly absurd when you realize that the foam and plastic variety that a majority of Vietnamese xe may riders wear on their heads are just about as useless for brain protection

The ceramics are follow-ons from earlier, celebrated Plonk et Replonk value added absurdities like ceramic hammers and nails that became even more insane when two headed nails and hammers were included in the quotient

Another theme is that of the garden gnome (unfortunately called dwarf in Manzi English translation….though with the artists’ disregard for the rampant use of politically correct terminologies this may have been an approved oversight!)

At L’Espace the gnomes are seen embedded in concrete blocks, ready to be heaved over board- which is where a lot of us consider garden gnomes belong

At Manzi the doomed gnomes feature prominently

Nearby are earlier works which feature gnomes. I’ve omitted translated titles in case your funny bone is already piqued and you want to experience the real things

I wonder if Misters Plonk et Replonk have visited an undulating wine growing valley in Western Australia where about ten years ago a couple of gnome lovers -grown to be gnome haters after their family kept giving them garden gnomes as gifts-packed up all their little folk and dropped them off at a T junction where a stream meandered through the gum trees. Soon the idea spread and Gnomesville grew and grew in population till now it has reached epic proportions of gnomic absurdity and become an international tourist attraction with most visitors taking long a newly purchased gnome to add to the many thousand already resident there.. It is common for children of deceased gnome owners to pack up the now unwanted gnomes and relocate them to grassy glades in memoriam.

Between the two Hanoi venues a visually uniting factor is provided by the menacing magician at L’Espace

Which becomes a fly stopper entrance at Manzi?

The brothers have added some Hanoi-an aspects to the show and one of the most prominent is at Manzi where the ubiquitous display of hotel foyer clocks (like those that show times from cities around the world on different longitudes) have been arranged and named to show places on the same longitude that are sharing the exact same time

The clocks are branded and like a lot of the items in the exhibition are for sale individually-or absurdly should you wish a longitudinal installation

I particularly like the packaged bonsai tree seeds

A very funny Plonk et Replonk calendar highlights some of the Duo’s manipulated postcards. One ridiculous month has an image indicating that we shouldn’t cast our pearls before swine and whose highlighted days are a hoot.

Coffee table books are a treasure trove of images with a couple of my favorites below

Here follows a small sample of images on the walls at both venues that made me guffaw:

The shark massagers, the chairman of the GM Board, Shakespeare, the 1597 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, a rail track for 3 trains, how to stop smoking, a navigational aid on the Rhine, and a monument to the victims of summer tourism

When you become addicted to the siblings ‘work you keep adding to your favorites and after I browse through websites such as this link and that link devoted to their carte postales I couldn’t get past this one referencing the worship of Saint Nicotine (476-501) by repentant smokers. St Nicotine renounced tobacco when tied to the stake for burning and hence saved her

And as it’s nearly Easter egg time these are appropriate

A nice touch to both shows would have been the inclusion of a space to screen animated video A couple below are excellent in the extreme. The first is on a theme of snails beloved by the pair and of course by gastronomically inclined French

[youtube width=”700″ height=”393″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqAJdBiwZs[/youtube]

[youtube width=”700″ height=”393″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqNOSG4jO0Y[/youtube]

In their surreal moments (which seem to be most of the time) the artists’ they refer to other surrealist artists who inhabit the places where-in they exhibit

In Belgium a nod of the head would have gone towards Rene Magritte with these two bits: an urban waterfall and a serious inundation of Brussels caused by Mannekin Pis pissing far too much on a particular day

After seeing the acclaimed art works of Hanoi’s famous finger pointing son, Nguyen Manh Hung, the brothers decided to bounce some of their aviation manipulations off his provocative fighter aircraft paintings and at L’Espace one wall is a frenzy of fun and wonder

When I was in Manzi’s art gift shop I came across this little sculptural work by Thai Nhat Minh and realized that it too could have been ideally placed

In fact you didn’t have to delve far into the gift shop to discover local works that Plonk and Replonk would savor:

To have a Plonk et Replonk exposition without wacky signs would be a travesty. At both venues the usual wall signs proliferate and featuring the inevitable DRY PAINT, L’Espace has a lit up variety as well

As Hanoi-ans go about getting hot under the collar about street tree removals, it would be refreshing to see a few local satirists turn their skills to Plonk et Replonk type statements about the powers that be who love dining out on old, valuable trees

A nice note to leave on: A Bookworm having a hissy-fit