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Until August 9, François Malingrëy presents a giant sculpture in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Invited to the Villa Dei Cedri Museum alongside established and emerging contemporary artists, François Malingrëy is presenting a giant reclining in the museum's gardens. This is not really surprising when you know that the figure is in fact a gardener, who is just taking a little rest... Five metres high, 200 kilos of resin and polystyrene, an impassive face. After several moves, the giant gardener has found his place: leaning against a tree in the park of the Museo Villa Dei Cedri.
"I usually work on paintings, and the curator of the exhibition, Marco Constantini, asked me for a work for an outdoor installation. So, I thought about it and started working on it in December. The theme of the exhibition is Hortus conclusus, the enclosed garden, it is very referential both artistically and religiously, and I took the story at face value. I wanted to know what an enclosed garden is and what the place of nature is"
- François Malingrëy
Is it possible to analyse our contemporary societies, especially in the West, in the light of the religious themes and ancient myths on which they are based? This is the question raised by the exhibition "Hortus conclusus. The Illusion of Paradise", starting from the Christian allegory of the enclosed garden - an image of Paradise and Mary's virginity - and the Greek myth of the Abduction of Europa, which tells the story of the heroic journey of a young kidnapped girl, the founder of European civilisation. While Western art has assimilated and propagated these two iconographies since the Middle Ages, their study today offers a key to contemplating the works of contemporary artists who explore the relationship between man and his territory, between identity and culture. Like the United States, Europe today seems to defend the idea of a hortus conclusus, a new inaccessible Eden, surrounded by walls, both physical and mental. The therapeutic metaphor of the garden, traditionally seen as a place of contemplative and spiritual retreat, has given way to a vision of a country that embodies the hope of a better life on the "other side" of the wall.
The works of these contemporary artists will be placed in dialogue with old prints from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries by Albretch Dürer, Heinrich Aldegrever, Martin Schongauer, Hendrick Goltzius and Remoldus Eynhoudts.
The exhibition Hortus conclusus. The Illusion of a Paradise is curated by Marco Costantin.
More information on the Museum's website: Museo Villa Dei Cedri
The artists:
Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Jean-Marie Appriou, Mirko Baselgia, Jean Bedez, Hicham Berrada, Laura Henno, Alain Huck, Eva Jospin, Mathias Kiss, Emma Lucy Linford, François Malingrëy, Omar Mismar, Adrien Missika, Sandrine Pelletier, Pierre et Gilles, Annaïk Lou Pitteloud, Recycle Group, Mustafa Sabbagh, Conrad Willems
