A Choice is an invitation into the singular universes of three artists who take us on a journey through the history of the movement of goods and people and the prism of our current era. These mutations induce human, sociological and political behaviors which the artists seize to better focus us on the prism of their vision.
Malala Andrialavidrazana, Figures 1854, The World at One View, 2021
Malala Andrialavidrazana's "Figures" utilizes the potential of information crossing and media transformation. By combining various elements such as regional and world atlases, banknotes and the covers of albums that have marked her generation, Andrialavidrazana's compositions reframe the knowledge we think we have of the world.
This very personal work is inspired by the notion of territory, which she has been exploring for several years. Through her deconstructions/reconstructions, she considers cartography as a privileged way to account for our current situation, marked by the phenomenon of globalization. The resulting creations are amplified by the presence of the engraved elements of the banknotes, symbols of the economic domination inherited from the colonial period that persists even after the declarations of independence.
"Figures" questions the meaning of signs and representations within images. Above all, the exploration of these different maps, produced according to the exploration campaigns and conquests of the great powers in the nineteenth century, exposes the one-sided nature of their conception. This needlework, this fabrication of new images orchestrated by the artist, illustrates his dexterity to compose perspectives.
Malala Andrialavidrazana uproots, harvests, photographs according to the source documents she has chosen, then superimposes the images to reinforce her reflection on the circulation and uncertainty of knowledge. All these clues are subtly superimposed in successive layers to give birth to photomontages, to imaginary worlds where the oceans come to life.
Text by Yves Chatap - Kehrer Verlag,
Vivian Van Blerk, Parrot Island, 2022
The practice of ceramics has enabled Vivian Van Blerk to make his models into works in their own right and no longer a support for photographic work.
This material, so concrete, so noble and so fragile at the same time, is an ideal medium to express the precarious beauty of existence.Thus he was able to tackle the theme of «Memento Mori» with a series of skulls in the tradition of vanities and still lifes. Each piece becomes the support of a unique universe, shown or secretly hidden inside the skulls, representing the particular imaginary world of each person.
His latest works are larger installations that reflect his questioning of our relationship to the world and to nature, at this moment in human history when our activity threatens our environment.They confront us with a post-human world, still haunted by the architectural ruins of abandoned cities, the last evocations of the history of our civilisations, still cluttered with the polluting waste of our devouring consumer societies, but where animal and plant nature are regaining their rights.
A sort of soothed naturalist resurrection but also a worried warning about the future of our society.
Emo de Medeiros, Cymbalics 0I0I (Unity), 2021
Emo de Medeiros' works revolve around a unique concept which he names contexture, a fusion of the digital and the material, the tangible and the intangible, exploring hybridizations, inter-connections and circulations of forms, technologies, traditions, myths and commodities.
It also draws on new perspectives and exchanges taking place in a new space: the current context of the postcolonial, globalized, and digitized world of the early 21st century.
His research focuses on transcultural spaces and the questioning of traditional notions of origin, place or identity and their mutations through non-linear narratives.
His work always has a salient conceptual dimension and is characterized by a participatory and rhythmic approach that fuses traditional, technological and semiological elements into forms that like to cross media.
His practice uses a wide range of media including drawing, sculpture, text, video, photography, assemblage, performance, electronic music, installations, painting and applied fabric.