Our century overlooks several millennia of artistic production. Moreover, it consciously embraces diversity. Globalization and internet networks have only accentuated the visibility of current or past artistic trends, Mediterranean, Asian, African and non-Western heritage in general. The exhibition "Canons de beauté" echoes this phenomenon and proposes to think about it in a transversal way.
The works of the series "Fake Abstracts", by the Spanish artist Lino Lago, reproduce the same device: a monochrome surface, as erased by a curious finger, reveals some details of a master painting. It is in this case portraits signed François Boucher (1703-1770), emblematic artist of the reign of Louis XV. Palimpsestes incongruous, the works of Lino Lago question with humor our perception. The pure abstraction of contemporary colored areas seems to oppose Baroque finesse and its profusion of details.
However, one of these "manners" is characteristic of its time, until becoming an academic milestone, a stereotype. Rococo portraits are, in the collective imagination, inseparable from the eighteenth-century European twilight. Similarly, the monochromes of Kasimir Malevich (1879-1935), signal a vanguard veiled throughout the twentieth century, until today become a standard. The revelation of female faces is not trivial either, a nod to the classic concept of beauty. What cultural shifts have abstract forms substituted for? Without judgment, Lino Lago invites the spectator to put these questions in resonance.
Laurence Le Constant operates on a mythological and symbolic syncretism. Each of her characters derives its name from an ancient deity - Themis, the Greek goddess of justice; Anoukis, of the flood of the Nile in ancient Egypt ... -, without bearing the characteristic attributes. A complex rereading, fueled by sci-fi mangas and inspired by the "dream time" of legendary Australian Aboriginal stories, is presented here. The art of plumasserie allows Laurence Le Constant to give life to hybrid characters with ardent features.
Themis, a little girl dressed in flames, reveals in some places her incarnation: a blue skin, lapis lazuli - color of the starry sky in the land of the pharaohs; in India, epidermis of deities who have transcended death. The magic that operates is not simply the workmanship, but the mystery that accompanies them. It encourages the visitor to go beyond, to become an initiate. By questioning, by imagination. The sculptures of Laurence Le Constant, as escaped from a cabinet of curiosity unpublished, as confusing as they fascinate.