After the Kunstmuseum in Bern was decked out in its metallic colors, Ghanaian artist El Anatsui was given carte blanche by the Conciergerie to present his first solo exhibition in France, « En quête de liberté » which is part of the Africa 2020 Season. Until November 14, 2021, he offers a tribute to opportunity that echoes the historical context of the place. This former imperial residence open to the city, once a high place of confinement, El Anatsui proposed an installation conducive with history.
The call to contemplation
Lowered in a subdued lighting, accentuated by the sections and curves of the landmark, these establishments reverberate the historical context of the place and time, while calling upon the components: water, wind, wood, metal and stone.
Two installations mixing textile and video between imposing columns to allude to the two arms of the waterway that encompass the Ile de la Cité and a nod to the Seine, the use of railroad tracks to provoke an excursion during the exhibition, some fifty organized rocks on which one can meditate and finally in the chimneys with six metal sculptures created with capsules and can blades as if to open up pathways to an unlimited field of possible outcomes.
The challenge of renunciation and another discernment
Through the exhibition « En quête de liberté », El Anatsui wishes to bring everyone to recognize the need to reappropriate this place of history, to mix our narratives and to leave room for possibilities of interpretation.
His sculptures open doors and allow us to escape the search for our own interpretation. As if to respond to her encouragement to look at and understand the world from another perspective.
The exhibition « En quête de liberté », continues until November 14, 2021 at the Conciergerie in Paris.
