26th October 2016

Jake & Dinos Chapman: Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again

- by Milly Burroughs

Paris is the place to be, or “l'endroit où il faut être”, right now. Jake & Dinos Chapman have returned to the city of love after seventeen years away for their first exhibition at both Kamel Mennour’s rue Saint-André des Arts and avenue Matigon gallery spaces.

Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again is a series of powerfully explosive works showcasing an inextricable link between the fates of art and humanity. The new exhibition is a direct follow on from the renowned art duo’s 1999-2000 sculpture Hell, which met a fiery and untimely ending when the Momart warehouse in East London burnt down on 24 May 2004. Despite putting a huge effort into producing nine glass display cases laid out in the shape of a swastika and 10,000 figurines of Nazi soldiers and officers undergoing the eternal torments of hell, upon finding out that they had just gone up in smoke the brothers are quoted as simply laughing at the somewhat ironic death of their work.

'Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again', © ADAGP Jake & Dinos Chapman Photo. Julie Joubert & archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris/London

Jake & Dinos Chapman’s latest work will be on display until 24 November and depicts a large ferris wheel taken over by a horde of Nazi zombies in the midst of devouring one another. Conceived in deep-rooted belief in the cyclical nature of history, The Chapman brothers’ latest exhibition reinforces a firm belief in recycling previous works. Aside from references to their own work, the pair have been known to reinterpret the works of other seminal artists. In 2010 they released The Same Thing Only Better, a tongue-in-cheek nod to Tracy Emin’s world-famous Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, which also fell victim to the Momart warehouse fire of 2004.

'Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again', © ADAGP Jake & Dinos Chapman Photo. Julie Joubert & archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris/London

Undoubtedly, Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again paints Jake & Dinos Chapman as dismissing the concept of progress and wallowing in the “dark forces” they see humanity swimming in. Referencing various high-profile conflicts, from Cain and Abel to today’s wars in the Middle East, their work isolates and focuses on an endurance and aggravation of evil that is relentlessly passed from generation to generation with little improvement. Nearly two decades after their debut footsteps on the art scene, walking among the Young British Artists, the Chapman Brothers show no sign of lowering their artistic voice.

Jake & Dinos Chapman's Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again is accessible Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-7pm, at 47 rue Saint-André des arts, Paris 6 until, and from Monday to Saturday, 11am-7pm at the 28 avenue de Matignon, Paris 8. Both shows are open until 26 November.

'Back to the End of the Beginning of the End Again', © ADAGP Jake & Dinos Chapman Photo. Julie Joubert & archives kamel mennour Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris/London