Listed here are excerpts from Dominique Brebion’s essay “Nicolas Derne’s paradoxical parades.” Learn full article and see extra pictures at Aica Caraïbe du Sud.
The Studio Lumina, a brand-new arts centre, has simply opened to artists and the general public, serving to to treatment the simple lack of venues devoted to artwork. 300 sq. metres with uncooked concrete partitions, black image rails and designer furnishings. The undertaking is coordinated and hosted by the brand-new affiliation Zofi, named after the Creole phrase for the garfish. It expresses the essence of the undertaking by utilizing the metaphor of a shoal of fish: it’s an artist’s collective, dedicated to sharing experiences. The creative director is the photographer Nicolas Derné.
The Studio Lumina is way more than an exhibition area. It’s an experimental area, a shared artist’s studio, together with, it’s true, an exhibition area, which can also be open to digital artwork, residence workshops that will probably be internet hosting two artists this yr, a shared workshop that may welcome a number of artists and a co-working area open to folks with a variety of technical expertise that they’ll share with artistic artists. An unlimited window on the entrance presents a large view over the gallery even earlier than guests step contained in the exhibition space.
The Studio Lumina is way more than an exhibition area. It’s an experimental area, a shared artist’s studio, together with, it’s true, an exhibition area, which can also be open to digital artwork, residence workshops that will probably be internet hosting two artists this yr, a shared workshop that may welcome a number of artists and a co-working area open to folks with a variety of technical expertise that they’ll share with artistic artists. An unlimited window on the entrance presents a large view over the gallery even earlier than guests step contained in the exhibition space.
The Studio Lumina was launched as a part of a public / non-public partnership. For the non-public sector, the corporate offering the area additionally helps the affiliation’s actions. For the general public sector, the Martinique Cultural Affairs Division (DAC) is funding funding within the lighting tools, image rails and different parts. The affiliation wish to take non-public partnerships additional. Partnerships wouldn’t be restricted to monetary help however might additionally take the type of pooling expertise. Making a bridge between the world of artwork and the world of enterprise is likely one of the important goals.
The programme for the approaching yr is at the moment being developed. The artists in residence for this primary session are Georges Emmanuel Arnaud and Ibiyanε. Tania Doumbe Fines and Elodie Dérond based the design studio Ibiyanε in 2020. Within the Batanga language in southern Cameroon Ibiyanε means « to know one another ». Arising from fashionable visions of Caribbean and sub-Saharan practices in ergonomics and luxury, their creations are designed and made by hand. The choice was taken for a non-limited residence by way of time and outcomes, all by way of the yr, to foster interactive practices, deeper analysis and, regarding Ibiyanε, to supply their first assortment, since till now the interdisciplinary duo have primarily labored on commissions.
The picture exhibition Parades by Nicolas Derné will probably be inaugurating the primary season on the Studio Lumina. Nicolas Derné explains the explanations for his alternative, despite the fact that Parades was already exhibited on the Tropiques Atrium in 2019. It’s a pity that performs are solely carried out as soon as in Martinique. In the identical means, solely seeing an exhibition as soon as is lastly not sufficient. What’s extra, the staging has been renewed right here. And most of all, the exhibition of pictures of the Caribbean Carnival aimed to offer our undertaking a totally Caribbean dimension instantly. I noticed that we knew little or no about artists from the Caribbean. On this venue devoted to the Caribbean space, Parades exhibits the Caribbean carnival with photos of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Trinidad. However there aren’t any exhibit labels intentionally, for the reason that concept is to indicate the Caribbean space and its interconnected actuality, not a number of totally different carnivals. To point out the area we dwell in and ask ourselves what we find out about it.
Dramatisation and ambiguity are options of this black-and-white collection on the carnival, far faraway from conventional, unique and festive clichés. By the carnival, as within the follow-up collection, Archipelago, a world opened as much as me, enabling me to speak about way more than the festive carnival. We could possibly be seeing a riot. It’s a dreamlike world, a second in historical past, symbols we are able to recognise typically. I like thought-provoking scenes, which elevate questions… the place viewers lose their bearings and ask what is admittedly occurring earlier than their eyes. [. . .]
As a part of the twentieth anniversary of « Regards sur Cours », the Institut Français in Dakar, Senegal is organising a collective exhibition from 29 April to twenty-eight Might 2023 in partnership with La Station Culturelle (Martinique). The exhibition compares and shifts our view of parades, whether or not they’re carnivals within the Caribbean or the creation (and show) of latest mutant masks within the Kédougou area. Fireplace, transfiguration, trance, catharsis, dwelling cultural heritage, non secular hyperlinks and wandering. Anaïs C. (Guadeloupe), Tradition Ailleurs (France), Nicolas Derné (Martinique), Gorgorlou (Senegal) ready the collective exhibition collectively as a part of a multidisciplinary residence.
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