Y Liver is a contemporary art duo created in 1999 by David Liver (born in 1977 in Le Havre) and Rugiada Cadoni (born in 1977 in Italy). Currently they live and work between Paris and Brussels.
Y Liver's work spans video, performance, drawing, installation and storytelling. Their work is based on the idea of art literature and it often has no other documentation as report than a narrative text and very few pictures.
In addition to its guerrilla-style artwork and its unorthodox performance pieces, which involves everything from interacting with strangers to graffiti, Y Liver is well known for its manipulation and perversion of languages, inspired by ancient religious scriptures and other hand-written texts.
Biography
After receiving their diplomas with Gabriele Di Matteo from Brera Milan School of Fine Arts in 2003, they decided to settle in Paris.
They have participated in several group exhibitions in Europe, such as the first Prague Biennale in 2003, the Nuit Blanche in Paris in 2004, and the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008, where they were invited to present a project in the Venezuela pavilion.
Their first real solo exhibition was in Rome in 2001, at the Pino Casagrande Studio, in which Y Liver closed off the exhibition space while letting the public wait in the hall of the gallery. In 2007 they collaborated with the stylist Antonio Marras, known for being the director of the Kenzo house. Together they produced a performance that will be filmed, and they signed a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) that was shown in Berlin in 2008.
It was in Berlin at Bimal Projects that their exhibition "Jude" aroused the concern of passersby, shocked by the large Jewish star painted in broad daylight by David on the window looking out onto Zimmerstrasse, across from the old Gestapo headquarters. The intervention of the police raised the curiosity of the press, and vandalism became the subject of a conference-performance held in collaboration with the philosopher Otto Kallsheuer.
In 2009, the Estace Gallery presented "THE EYES MOVEMENT THE MAN MIGRATION AND YOU", an exhibition of drawings, and in September the duo founded Y Liver in New York at the MBK Gallery. This exhibition consists of writing and of visitors reading a journal-pamphlet printed for the occasion. The exhibition also presents "Ashkémuslim mice we are", a video consisting mainly of the text of online chats recorded over the course of two months between the Palestinian gallery owner and the artist. Y Liver have been invited to perform in the five last editions of Frasq, an international performance festival, at the Générateur in Paris.
They are currently collaborating with E IL TOPO