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« The crossing of disaster » by François Andes, in Brazil
5 minThe crossing of disaster is a monographic exhibition by François Andes, curated by Luiz Gustavo Carvalho. This project has been taking place since 2016 during artistic residencies in Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, and Brazil.
François Andes and Luiz Gustavo Carvalho’s creative process focuses on various beliefs to examine the evolution of humankind’s relationship to nature, in particular to ecosystems with running water and forests, and delves into several mythologies for the keys to reinventing our reality or allowing us, at the very least, to get through it.
The exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Curitiba, Brazil) showcases the works created as part of these residencies and provides a new dialogue between the work of François Andes and the museum’s Asian collection.
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2/12"The crossing of disaster", by François Andes
What landscape is left to contemplate by human societies which, after several genocides, have capped off the 20th century with an ecocide of disastrous consequences?
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3/12The tears of the ocean will flow in this garden. 2018. Ink on canson paper. 88 x 30 cm.
The ancient Agora has become an anachronistic space often covered by ghost towns, rapidly thrown together, jealously enclosing the data which could preserve the collective memory of the human species after its disappearance.
© Marcello Kawase.
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4/12The crossing of disaster. View of the exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. Curitiba. Brazil. 2021.
The crossing of disaster showcases a group of works examining the evolution of the relationships between humankind and nature with a curator-artist dialogue which unearths new landscapes and revisits a history.
© Marcello Kawase. 2021.
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5/12Les Préparatifs (the preparations). Amazighs. 450 x 219 cm. Graphite on canson paper. 2016 / 2018.
François Andes presents us with a vast and fascinating imaginary bestiary, inhabited by dreams, struggles, and ancestral symbols from various mythologies.
© Matthieu Démarré.
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6/12The crossing of disaster. View of the exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. Curitiba. Brazil. 2021.
The protagonists unveiled there are archaic and timeless, and ultimately show us that what tends to endure comes dangerously close to fatality.
© Marcello Kawase. 2021
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7/12In-situ intervention. Dialogue with four inks on silk. Anonymous. Qing dynasty
These monsters and gods with an anthropomorphised animality are ready for war, wonder, silence, and love. They are the revelatory metamorphoses of desire and anguish.
© Marcello Kawase
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8/12The crossing of disaster. 2021. Korean pigments on Hanji paper. 38 x 36 cm. Masks from Bhutan and Japan. 20th century. Papier-mâché. Varying dimensions.
A landscape not to be found on any earthly map, where Thanatos and Eros frolic wildly in glades under the light of day, accompanied always by an underground flow of lyricism whispering softly through its invisible channels.
Masques du Bhoutan et du Japon. XXe. Papier mâché. Dimensions variables.
© Marcello Kawase
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9/12Les Préparatifs (The Preparations). Ducasse. 5 x 75 x 219 cm. Graphite on canson paper. 2015.
Through drawing, François Andes searches for a solution to the problem of psychological representation from its foundation - a literal stripping away to the bare bones. It is a gaze into the very depths of human relationships; love within hate, freedom within love, joy within freedom.
© Matthieu Démarré.
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10/12Sunless sea, The Demon She Loves, The Dancing Rocks. 3 x 23 x 58 cm. 3 x 23 x 58 cm. Korean pigments on paper and mural painting from two ancient sculptures in the Asian collection of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. 2021.
The artist populates the world with unusual wildlife and people thrown onto the paper with raw and visceral strokes, taking up a tradition distancing himself from surrealist formulae and bringing him nearer to the world of Jérôme Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, and Alfred Kubin.
Pigments coréen sur papier et peinture murale à partir de deux sculptures antique de la collection asiatique du Musée Oscar Niemeyer. 2021.
© Marcello Kawase
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11/12Cuisine of the Ancestors. 2018/2021. Indian ink and Korean pigments on Hanji paper. 138.5 x 201 cm.
As in Orestes by Euripides, the superhuman for François Andes begins where there is still a little bit of the human. To immerse our gaze in this work is to draw nearer to our ancestral roots as well as our own beastliness. Maybe this is the only way to get through the disaster which is now all too real.
Encre de chine et pigments coréen sur papier Hanji. 138,5 x 201 cm.
© Marcello Kawase
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The Institut français and the exhibition
François Andes and Luiz Gustavo Carvalho’s residencies in Asia and Brazil were supported by partnerships between the Institut français, the Hauts de France region, and the Métropole Européenne de Lille.
The crossing of disaster is a Villa Saigon-winning project of the Institut français in Vietnam. The Curitiba Alliance Française is a partner of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum exhibition.
The exhibition will be presented in Autumn 2021 at the Celma Albuquerque Art Gallery, Belo Horizonte, in partnership with the Minas Gerais Institut français.