The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) announces « OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM » and offers unconditional creative power to Malagasy fashion artist Joël Andrianomearisoa from September 23, 2022 to July 16, 2023.
For this exhibition under the direction of Meriem Berrada, the contemporary artist, Joel Andrianomearisoa is invited to contribute the entire space while returning to conventional Moroccan know-how to give a polyphonic work largely inclusive and lively sequenced into three events.
The exhibition « OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM » resonates with the region of Marrakech by addressing its different artistic strategies to realize works in situ delivered only on site and in discourse with a determination of works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (MACAAL).
It follows the discussion initiated between the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) and the artist during his participation in the exhibition « What Is Forgotten And What Remains », presented as part of the Africa 2020 Season at the National Museum of Immigration History in Paris.
“OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM” is an approach to access the connection between material and earth, to challenge the delicate boundary between craft and art, and to witness the well-established transmission.
The title of the exhibition “OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM” is a sonnet recited like a mantra that speaks of starting points and the earth, bringing out the infinite conceivable results of the natural substance that Joël Andrianomearisoa appropriates, reconstructs, or reworks. Captivated by hereditary material expressions, the artist has been working for over twenty years with embroidery aces in his region of Antananarivo. More recently, he has partnered with weavers in the city of Udaipur, India and an expert weaver in Aubusson, France.
The works delivered for “OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM” were made only in Marrakech, involving a range of artistic strategies in close exchange with the people who make them.
After an exploratory residency, Joël Andrianomearisoa attempted to develop unique works in close coordination with experienced artisans. The resulting works are private understandings of the Moroccan imaginative heritage as well as a recognition of the art. Delicate to the materials he experiments with, Joël Andrianomearisoa joins different mediums with style and responsibility. Basketry, metalwork, earthenware production and weaving as a whole serve his beautiful vision through textile installations, metal models or drawings on natural paper; all perspectives presented.
This equivalent journey for reverberation led Joel Andrianomearisoa to participate in visual discussions with the artists, Amina Agueznay, Clotilde Courau, Abderahman Aboulouane, Zineb Andress Arraki, Amina Benbouchta, Miloud Bouarfa, Yassine El Harada, Alexandre Gourçon, Tibari Kantour, Azzedine Toufikallah and Hindi Zahra. Investigating goldsmithing, woodcutting or sound, each of his accomplices responds to the beautiful peregrination of the material made by him.
“OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM” is accompanied by an extensive program that includes school visits and guided tours, discussions and meetings with artists and cultural operators, creative studios for youth and adults, and off-site events.
Delicate with all materials, Joël Andrianomearisoa joins mediums with class and devotion, from attraction to installation as well as performance and photography, being the main artist to highlight Madagascar at the 2019 Venice Biennale. He uses his creations to include human connections where camaraderie, love, energy, trust, but also discouragement, nostalgia and difficulty of self are organized without previously established inclinations or old age. His work generally communicates a type of delicacy as a fundamental life force.
Notwithstanding his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden, the artist Joël Andrianomearisoa will present until October 2023 his personal project « HISTOIRE D’UN DÉPART » at the airport of Toulouse, the exhibition « LES HERBES FOLLES DU VIEUX LOGIS » at the Primo Marella Gallery of Milan in Italy, « JOSEP LE MONDE ET MOI JOSEP EL MÓN I JO JOSEP THE WORLD AND I JOSEP EL MUNDO Y YO » at the Centre Grau Garriga d’Art Tèxtil Contemporani in Barcelona and an exhibition at the Museum of the Zinsou Foundation in Ouidah from October.
