Brigitte Marionneau

Containing the wind

September 10 - November 3, 2016

Brigitte Marionneau - Containing the wind 2016

Brigitte Marionneau has been traveling for thirty years in the land of the elements brought into play by clay: the lively, open will that animates and guides her has taken her ceramic expression from a narrative work of sculpted figures, which arose following a trip to Navajo land, to an imagery of seeds and colored fields, which was the subject of a first exhibition at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste in 2008. The following year, the artist made a radical shift towards sculptural abstraction in black and white. The fruit of a personal journey that is both free and rigorous, Brigitte Marionneau's work, also nourished by a vast cultural background, has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in France and Europe since 1990.
This second exhibition at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste brings together some twenty recent works, including a new series of sculptures entitled "Contenir le vent" - an image borrowed from the title of a poem itself inspired by one of the artist's works - which testify to a precise construction approach in which the ceramic artist expresses the idea of vitality in the tension of lines.

In some architectures, the luminous black of basalt or ebony simplifies the reading of the form to the extreme. The form takes on an intensity of its own. Is it the cradle or miniature tomb of an ancient Egyptian god, the reclining head of a now-forgotten hero, or a rock from the very first magmas? The mystery of these dense, inward-looking volumes cannot be broken. Their opaque wholeness attracts and seduces like an enigma, because it is permeated by a filigree of life: slight furrows - human or geographical topography? - ripple across the surface of this earth-skin like the hair of the couple in The Kiss, bringing Brancusi's monolith to life. The contrast between the different planes, alternately smooth and textured, also helps to enliven the whole. Texture comes to the fore in a number of pieces, giving new light to forms already explored by Brigitte Marionneau. Inspired by Henri Michaux or Aire IV - 1960, an ink by Dubuffet, she scarified a white matte enamel before fusing: striations, scratches or lightning stripes - echoing the broken line of the form - enliven the surface with the vitality of signs..
Pascale Nobécourt
journalist, art critic