As soon as you enter the Lambert Collection, a private contemporary art museum in Avignon (in the south of France), the colors jump out at you. First those of a sumptuous painting by the American Jean-Michel Basquiat, Asbestos (1981-1982), all in bright lines and blue, orange, red drops. And if you spend a few seconds in the lobby, two installations catch your attention. Firstly, these paving stones, with one side painted in color and which seem to fly on the walls (Colorful Stones, 2023). And then, when you look at the ceiling, these three huge stakes with sharp ends show the colors of the French flag: blue, white, red (BBR seeds, 2023). Children see giant colored pencils – which maybe they are – adults can detect a more political statement…
Let the colors bite you
“Colored Stones”, 2019, by Pascale Marthine Tayou. © Courtesy of the Artist and Galeria Continua
In a somewhat theatrical gesture, Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou designates delete two works and invites you to discover his new exhibition, Small things (until November 19, 2023) with these words: “Now let’s let the colors awaken. » On the wall, a statement of interest in poem form specifies its approach: “The Small things, is my emergency call in the face of the multiple terrors that torment me. But you guarantee that this adventure will turn into a fun performance, with joy and humor. »
Born in 1966 in Nkonsamba (Cameroon), close to the Black Magazine, Pascale Marthine Tayou is currently based in Ghent, Belgium. His abundant installations have become famous in the world of contemporary art since the early 2000s, with exhibitions at Documenta Kassel (2002) and the Venice Biennale (2005 and 2009). Currently performing at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, (until 26 November 2023), Were Were, which brings together monumental works. It is also present at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt for a group exhibition Plastic World.
“Plastic Tree”, 2014-2015, by Pascale Marthine Tayou. © Courtesy of the Artist, Galeria Continua
Transforming poisons into nectars
As its name indicates, Small things It aims to be a more modest, more refined exhibition, which does not prevent it from expressing great ambitions. In the artist's words, this means: “This exhibition is a poison laboratory for saying things… And transforming poison into consumable nectar. »Like a true alchemist, Tayou turns pain into tons, spicy like candy. If the there is delivered from the entrance with revised and corrected slabs and piles, the work entitled Chains clearly indicates the main theme of the exhibition. From one room to another, the visitor finds on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, large rusty and broken chains, of which only the breaks to have been colored.
“In this conversational exhibition, color is the bullet in my gun and I will use it to get us out of the shooting range, away from the tanks and other poisoned arrows that have whistled for almost three thousand years in our meadows,” writes the artist. What also specifies about Chains, with a taste for pronounced puns: “I want to unchain the chains!” »
Polysemic, most of the works exhibited in Small things transfigure lead (of history) into gold (of art). Sometimes it's very literal, like this earthy painting titled Sugar canecomposed of human-shaped figurines trapped in a sugar cane prison, or so Black Art Code. 4 that locks silhouettes in a barcoded prison.
Other works are more subtle, like this planisphere of raw earth, obviously devoid of edges and dotted with colorful sequins (Common land, 2023). Or this maze made of national flags (World Labyrinth, 2023). Everywhere, color is the ointment that softens, heals, repairs. Thus, these corrugated cardboard sheets that in many parts of the world symbolize the misery of the favelas are transformed under the artist's touch into a flock of multicolored birds (Tornado2019).
The wound and the suture
“Colonial Shanghai”, 2019, by Pascale Marthine Tayou. © Courtesy of the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUES
Number of works presented in Small things work like this: show the injury, suggest suturing. It is, therefore, no coincidence that many of the objects that make up Pascale Marthine Tayou's creations have scars. How do chairs Plastic chairs or plastic bottlesOxygenevoking one the great international conferences (Berlin, Bandoeng, Yalta...), the other our relationship of predation with the environment... Joyful and modest, theseSmall things offer a breath of optimism: from the darkest of our lives rainbows can sprout, the doctor Tayou.
