Paris
Galerie Polaris
21 Nov → 4 Jan 2020
Wed to Fri from 11 am to 7 pm. Sat and Tue until 8pm. Closed Sun & Mon.
Wooden masks and statuettes, with elongated faces and primitive shapes. None of them have disappeared from our markets since decolonization. The traditional forms of African art, taken up by primitivist painters and sculptors at the beginning of the 20th century, are now part of our collective imagination and abound in art markets. With his sculptures, Harald Fernagu proposes to decolonize stereotypes. Here, no beautiful statues, but frames that bend to the artist's reinterpretation. To the shapes, he glues myriads of shells or small nails to the shimmering base. This use of popular techniques becomes an aesthetic vector, in the service of an art with geopolitical questions. The artist thus questions the Western fascination for these objects, which has encouraged the despoilment of many African communities, which is still alive today. With this "DIY", as he calls it, he proposes a narrative that makes it possible to fill in the gaps in the story, or to propose another reading.