23 June 2018 -
30 September 2018
Can the acceleration of time, fuelled by immediacy, simultaneity and speed, lead to its disappearance? Will we be able to preserve moments for reflection and dreaming, and spaces for travel and contemplation? For the exhibition Ailleurs, Rendre du Temps au Temps, Gallifet Art Centre invited seven artists selected by Charles Le Hyaric to rediscover time itself and to bring new perspectives to the space.
From the moment that you step foot into the tranquil garden, the suspended dome created by Côme Di Meglio announces the start of a Mediterranean voyage with Hellenistic and Portuguese influences. The structure’s intense azure colour transports us to Santorini, while the treatment of the surface is reminiscent of azulejos, the bright ceramic tiles typical of the Iberian peninsula. It is within this cocoon that the artist invites us to attend spellbinding dinners, offering guests a very personal version of what it means to be ‘elsewhere’.
Further to the left, between the cabins suspended in the branches, Charlie Jouan invites us to go on a walk. Signalling the entry to the exhibition rooms, his floating world follows a path that runs from one room to the next, along footbridges that link up the many different levels and sections of a dreamlike village. The poetic oriental style of this work is reminiscent of the worlds that unfold in the great Hayao Miyazaki’s animated masterpieces.
It is easy to lose yourself in Théophile Stern’s world of draped white linen. Some, imagining themselves plunged into Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, will perceive the creases of giant dresses, while others will see the Gothic shapes of the cathedral domes. Others will feel as though they are entering the eye of a needle. Regardless of what you see, you will experience the wonder of the imagination, whose terrain the artist has so expertly prepared.
Charles le Hyaric, exhibition curator and a featured artist himself, invites us to enter an abstract installation whose components, although all recognisable to us, play with our temporal and spatial references. The light makes it seem as though we voyage in the submarine Nautilus, while in the next moment we find ourselves plunged into the final act of Maurice Ravel’s lyric fantasy, The Child and the Enchantments. There is no doubt that this work, between Arte Povera and Russian avant-garde, allows us to explore our connection with the elements; its design conveys a sense of balance between space and time through the play of light and sound.
Gaetano Cunsolo arranges unusual and unexpected objects in the pursuit of a new way to experience the space between 4 walls. A moving construction that combines painting, sculpture and architecture.
Through Rebecca Digne’s video installation, we discover the exploration of creative time. She confronts time, the elements, and storytelling in the presentation of a dialogue between the art world and two men who dream of transforming their environment. A sense of harmony is found amidst the faint sounds of the forest and the waves.
Alexandre Korzeniovski evokes the traces left by homes of the past. His work, suspended in a space that seems to have been fossilised by salt and water, invites us to share the memories of the artist’s travels and his archaeologic discoveries.
