2016, 5 channels 50:00 loop video installation on flat 40” screens.

Pauahtun, an elderly incarnation of the great God Itzamna who created the universe at the beginning of the Mayan era (3114BC – 2012AD). Representations of Pauahtun can be found across the Mayan territories, often attributed as the snail god and the master of scribes, in mythology transcribes god’s will. In the videos we witness snails, adorned with gold leaves on their shell that crawl around an open plan. With her video work Beaudemont makes reference to the eccentric aristocrat Jean Floressas Des Esseintes, the protagonist in Joris-Karl Huysmans novel A Rebours (1884). In an act of narcissistic exaggeration the dandy Des Esseintes covers a turtle with gold and different gems, an ambition and a weight that crushes the animal to death. In contrast to the fatal end of Des Esseintes turtle, the snails engage in fertile experiments and their food colored trails leave traces that in turn result in an abstract painting.

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Exhibition views of Caravan at Aargauer Kunsthaus, April 2016.