Each envelope placed on the benches of St. Benedict’s Chapel in Plasy contains a fly which was collected on the chapel floor. Each fly is en route to another location, which can be seen through the envelopes’ address box. These drawings are narratives which mirror the fresco and cupola of the chapel. The fly envelope is an individual environment, an architecture, a location. Through the envelope window you can see a kitchen in France or a bowl of soup from New York. Each illustration creates an identity for the fly, its personal fiction, its history. The envelopes were sent by mail to different countries and then sent back to the Plasy monastery.

Fly Route is a mirror of migration, transmigration, death and afterlife. It is about the concept of return. The fly chapel is a metaphor for the personal history and identity of the many different people who have congregated in this place. It is a reference to individuality, which compares the personal imaginary of the fly with the universal ideology of the chapel. Fly Route is a satire in which ‘art is an experiment with the importance of the singular.’_

Charlie Citron, 1994

Charlie Citron (1958) is a sculptor, photographer and curator. He was born in New York, studied art history in the U.S. (1982 BA Art/Art History State University of New York at Binghamton) and attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (1988 Fellow Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Sculpture Department). He has participated in many international exhibitions in New York, Europe and Asia, ranging from museums, galleries, residencies, on-site events and community projects. Charlie Citron lives in Amsterdam and works with rubber bands, found objects, photography, wax and narratives.

RS 21.6.2017