Nearest Pond at Espace 3353
Solo Show «One Eye Too Many», January 30 until March 14, 2026
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Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Nearest Pond is an artist duo based in Geneva. Through the mediums of installation, sculpture, image, and sound, they explore, from a critical perspective, the hegemonic doctrine of anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism is a school of thought that presupposes human superiority over all other entities. The rest of the living world is viewed merely as a resource intended solely for human needs and desires, placed entirely at our disposal. Through fiction – specifically speculative narration – and various formal strategies, Nearest Pond proposes an imagined ‟de-centering”. This shift in perspective often feels abrasive: it depicts a plausible dystopia just as much as a potential escape hatch from a world of repetitive crises on the brink of collapse.
One Eye Too Many is an exhibition proposal designed specifically for the 3353 space, serving as a continuation of the collective’s research. Here, three pieces, as curious as they are disturbing, form a fragmented circle scraping the surface of the white cube. It seems that upon experiencing the exhibition, one is seized by an irrepressible need to observe the three pieces with one’s back to the windows, as if to fill the gaps in this circle. It is the desire to see everything from the best vantage point, like a panorama.
Multiple vanishing points exist, yet no exit is in sight. Surrounded by retro-futuristic screens, one might imagine being at the helm of a control tower or trapped in a high-anxiety escape room. In this sense, it seems pertinent to note that we immediately project ourselves into a space potentially within our reach. We sketch the possibility of our own bodies within these corridors, which are reproduced at a height of only 30cm. But what if they were actually tiny? What if the affable figurine greeting us were the main character? What if it were us, made small? Or perhaps something else entirely? A radically different being. These shifting scales are one of the strategies deployed by Nearest Pond to displace, or even surpass, the supposedly normative but biased viewpoint we unconsciously inhabit.
Beyond mere mental projection, one of the strengths of One Eye Too Many lies in its success in creating a total environment with minimal means. Upon crossing the threshold, we can certainly imagine ourselves in another possible world – plausible yet incoherent, like David Lynch’s Black Lodge ;-) – but in the here and now, the audience is also encircled. It is a play between interiority, exteriority, and their porosity, where the artists take a mischievous pleasure in leading us astray.
On a formal level, the entire installation is constructed from consolidated strips. The photos, taken by the artists (human-made!) within previous sculptures, are joined end-to-end to build the final images. They are drawn from reality, not pulled out of a hat, nor generated by artificial intelligence. Similarly, their structures build a coherent whole, strip by strip. It is an attempt to hold up a world that is falling into ruin.
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
Exhibition View Solo Show Nearest Pond «One Eye Too Many ; view on One Eye Too Many, 2026, inkjet print on rice paper, cardboard, wood, paper, China ink, acrylic paint, varnish, Variable dimensions» at Espace 3353, Carouge, 2026 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Espace 3353
