Madonnas of modern times
Exhibition from May 30 to June 21, 2015 — 36 rue Georges Le Bigot, Villejuif
Presentation
Art & Motion presented its exhibition in 2015, with animation, scientific conference and debates on the theme of motherhood today.
Three visual artists each offered their vision on procreation, natural and medically assisted gestation, children and disabilities, and the challenges of motherhood.
Childbirth is at the heart of the human being because it poses, very concretely, the question of otherness. Bring into the world an “other self” or an “other self”? Biology teaches us the dizzying arithmetic of “one” and “a different” makes “a whole other”. What is alive is that which welcomes the “quite other”, oh so beneficial in that it is both strange and familiar. Plastic creation also proceeds from the same alchemy. Three artists invite you to the presentation of their gestation product on this theme.
Geneviève Bonieux
Geneviève Bonieux forges light through resin-coated fiberglass. The result? Stained glass screens that evoke the sacred atmosphere of the representation of the Madonna in religious iconography.
What is important to her here are the whims of nature: Our Lady (the Mother) does not choose her child. He can be weak, sick, vulnerable, or strong and independent: the son of man, or the son of God? Modern questions of relentless therapy and the myth of egalitarian and universal maternal love are also asked.
His Madonnas on screens therefore have twins, whose association brings suffering and happiness, worry and joy. The world of childhood is highlighted by candies caught in the resin, colorful and light, also typical of the artist’s work. These sweets give relief to the vivid colors that characterize his work.
Techniques used: Fiberglass panels, plexiglass, resin joined by brass hinges. Paint and (real) candies embedded in the resin.
Diane Lombardo
It is in the transparency of the flesh that, through a play of light, raw emotion is revealed.
An overwhelming feeling. Proximity is confusing. Sometimes even until the disturbance. From serenity to ordeal, from waiting to introspection, we travel through the heart of this dark space, from which these faceless and colorless mothers emerge. True silhouettes-chrysalis illuminated by this interior heat, transcending the void.
We then walk through space as in the twists and turns of situations: in turn comforting Madonna awaiting deliverance, surrogate mother donating her creation. Sometimes an absent mother, beggar or suffering violence. They are there, in front of us, enjoying all their intensity. Calling us, failing to answer, to question ourselves: what is being a mother today?
So many topical subjects are discussed here: from surrogacy to the notion of guilt in the face of society, through dependence or even submission to the father of the child. Each unveils an essential message: The apprenticeship is long, the journey strewn with pitfalls. Constant hesitations. All punctuated by strong sentences, written on the walls, outrageous our reasoning, sublimating our thinking.
Techniques used: Life-size, body molding, cling film and adhesive tape, various objects.
Damien Schoevaert-Brossault
This artistic work joins his scientific research in a sensitive mode with a predilection for woodcut and pop-up, matrix of all contrasts, hollows and relief, black and white, folds and backs -fold, the unexpected emergence. A plastic approach suitable for meditating on motherhood as expectation and surprise.
There is like a poetic lullaby, in the unfolded paper: Here comes the child, to accomplish the senseless meeting of the original and the original. Here is the brand new coming to the oldest for the dance of life.
Techniques used: Paper, rhodoïd, engraving and pop-up.