Until May 03, 2024, LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery presents the captivating and philosophical exhibition “Cogito ergo… seum” by Sess Essoh. Through sunny, colorful paintings, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the passion and poetry with which the artist adorns her creations, giving them a bewitching touch of uniqueness.
Sess Essoh’s work refuses any pre-established classification. Oscillating between abstract and concrete art, the artist explores a territory where portraits and symbols seem indecipherable to the uninitiated, enriching the visual narrative of his artistic approach. This unconventional approach reveals the total freedom with which the Ivorian artist brings his paintings to life, marking the culmination of an accomplished artist. Each work is distinguished by unique and recognizable features, while retaining its own singular identity.
It is this depth and expressiveness that give her creations their striking impact. The “Cogito ergo… seum” exhibition offers an immersive journey into the heart of Sess Essoh‘s artistic universe, captivating visitors in a whirlwind of creativity. The artistic space is sublimated by vast expanses of pure color, mixing shades of red, yellow and blue, and playing with textures ranging from smooth to irregular, integrating elements such as glued paper, crumpled paper and fabrics. Through this unprecedented combination of elements, the artist transports the public into his artistic universe, seducing them with his technicality and communicative depth, without any limits or reservations.
Despite the optimistic vision that shines through Sess Essoh‘s works, they do not always reflect a euphoric perception of the world. Inspired by the realities of our contemporary societies, her portraits sometimes convey messages of an altogether different nature, but her artistic mastery makes them just as subtle and devoid of aggression. Extracts from his writings reveal keys to suffering often ignored and hushed up with elegance, a regret sometimes sketched out, as in his Letter to Menelik:
I draw you, my dear son,
The fresco-frasco of this ideal
With hopes aborted early on
The evolution of his series or works, with enigmatic titles whose content eludes us, creates a kind of labyrinth where getting lost becomes pleasant. Dreamlike narratives could emerge from the fragments of his writings, almost frustrating in their incompleteness. In this way, Sess Essoh arouses in the audience the desire to explore the whole story, to discover the conclusion of this adventure and the mysteries it contains. The works in “Cogito ergo… seum” are at once silent and loquacious, speaking only to those who know how to listen, hear and understand them, going beyond mere canvases to decipher and perceive them. This combination of obviousness and mystery, openness and restraint, fascinates in this work of great depth.
In December, Sess Essoh had the unfortunate experience of an accident. This significant episode in the contemporary artist’s life inspired many of the works presented in “Cogito ergo… seum“. His salvation came from his desire to live, from the renewed vitality that quickly brought him back to his creative work. In painting, Sess Essoh finds a means of survival, of forgetting pain and staying anchored in this world. Papers, canvases and colors then begin a poignant expressive ballet, revealing the urgency of his expression, guided by multiple question marks, notably why? why me? why now? why here?
His paintings illustrate his questions and answers, transposing anguish and pain, anger at times, but also the recognition and resilience of still being alive. This experience has changed her perception of the world, and consequently the characters in her paintings. During this period, her field of vision was restricted to the faces of other patients, carers and visitors, wearing a falsely saddened and compassionate expression. A new environment that Sess Essoh tries to appropriate, interpret and transcribe in his works.
More than just an exhibition, “Cogito ergo… seum” sees the Ivorian artist step out of his usual creative zone to offer us a poignant testimony to a whole humanity in distress: the distress suffered, the distress to be relieved and the distress to be healed. Always sensitive to the human condition, Sess Essoh infuses this sensitivity into her paintings, giving them a depth, an almost human soul. This time at LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery, far beyond the human sense, the exhibition grips the viewer with its ability to depict the reality of inequalities, social or bodily, the sighs of resignation or unbearable pain, the murmurs of carers and visitors creating a kind of melody as insistent as that of the rising tide, half-prayer, half-form of sublimation of beings and things, which ultimately amounts to the same thing.
Sess Essoh also depends on the isolation of the sufferer to transcend any presence around him, leaving him alone in his inner struggle against the pain that consumes him, the death that prowls without distinction of age or social status. “Cogito ergo… seum” presents a series of papers, entitled “série noire“, revealing solitary profiles or duos emerging from a chaos of illegible letters, inarticulate cries, an unspeakable testimony to their ordeal. Some large canvases, tinted red or blue, reveal the essential elements of his work, where the artist succeeds in expressing his questioning and torment. Finally, an immense, captivating hanging envelops us, highlighting the artist at the height of his creative genius, virtuosity and artistic maturity.
Contemplating this striking collection of works at LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery , we are transported to a universe where loneliness, pain and creativity meet to offer a poignant testimony to the human experience.
