L'Odyssée
A stage in Horizons d'eaux
The exhibition L'Odyssée, a stage in Horizons d'eaux uses contemporary works from the collection of Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, or from artists who have worked with the institution, to explore our links with water. It follows on from the Horizons d'eaux programme organised along the Canal du Midi in the Occitanie region since 2017, and extends the reflections on this precious element.
Water covers almost 70% of our planet and makes up around 60% of our bodies. From the drop to the ocean, it is both intimate and immense, familiar and mysterious, immersive and yet increasingly rare. The seas and oceans are what connect us and separate us, a space that centuries of navigation have allowed us to get to know without ever taming it, and which has given rise to many myths and stories. Despite the technical developments, even though human existence is closely linked to it, even though humans inhabit it, explore it and exploit it, water has a life of its own, with its rhythms, its seasons, its movements, its inhabitants and its stories. It forms a network of memories and information, of thoughts and different forms of physicality that the artists use as an interface for our relationship with the world.
Through the works of a dozen artists, the exhibition navigates between the imaginary world of water and the current problems caused by climate change, inviting us to explore our individual and collective relationship with this element. The artists highlight the quest of the voyage, its dreamlike aspects, its unknowns and sometimes shipwrecks, during which water is as much a fear as a refuge and a hope. Water is our horizon, near and far: joy and melancholy run through these works, which question our relationship with living things, our knowledge and our migrations. There is also an underwater world below the horizon, full of life, whose mythologies have inspired the imaginations of artists seeking to understand and reconnect with the stories of this hidden universe. Diving beneath the surface, into the depths, means exploring a mysterious aquatic landscape, in transformation, and following the flow of waters where thoughts and dreams wander. Let the artists guide us through the imagination of liquid matter.
Artists : Dove Allouche, Hicham Berrada, Julie Chaffort, Olivier Debré, Jochen Lempert, Marie Losier, N55, Maya Rochat
Thanks to the Kamel Mennour gallery, Paris and to Hicham Berrada
Maya Rochat, "A rock is a river (Wallpaper Blue-Green)", 2017, collection les Abattoirs, Musée –Frac Occitanie Toulouse, papier mural, dim. variables © Maya Rochat ; photo courtesy de l’artiste