Since January 12, the Musée de Mahébourg has been hosting the creations of some forty artists from 13 different countries, gathered under the aegis of Escale, for a 4th Mauritian residency. The project’s initiator, German-Mauritian Manou Soobhany, invited his counterparts to create and exchange ideas on the theme of “Islands, myths and reality”.
Some thirty artists from around the world spent a month living and working at the Pointe Jérôme youth center, before moving on to the Mahebourg museum, where their work will be on display until April 2. A dozen artists from Mauritius, including four students from the MGI, also took part in the project… They all took over this historic site, from the cellar to the attic, via the majestic garden, outbuildings and stores. A visit to the site takes on a whole new dimension in this treasure hunt, where you have fun spotting the anachronisms… so many contemporary artistic gestures, which have found their place among the objects and documents of the maritime history museum…
Whether German, Japanese, American, Icelandic or Mauritian (etc.), each came with his or her own story, playing a score more or less close to the theme launched. Many installations, solo or group, photography, video, sound, painting… the ensemble is eclectic, but these new perspectives challenge and open windows onto other imaginary worlds. Allow two hours for this visit full of forty surprises.
From garden to attic
It’s impossible to miss Guy André Lagesse’s Takata Pakata installation, built on the bases of cut trunks, which invites us to consider everyday objects from a visual and symbolic angle, to create a Mauritian vernacular aesthetic. In the museum, the Russian-German couple Nina and Torsten Römer have photographed motifs in the acid colors of the nearby Tamil temple. Like Lucy Lagesse, Anke Doberauer has spent most of her time in Cité La Chaux, painting its inhabitants with a confident, vibrantly truthful touch.
American artivist Sarah Lewinson questions the damage done by Wakashio with a sega, while Kristine Schnappenburg invites us to tell turtle stories… Piotr Zamojski has added a few words to the cars in need of renovation in the backyard. Japan’s Tono evokes our maritime epics in a visual poem based on natural seeds and pigments. Seychellois Justin Reddy savors his first time in Mauritius. Above all, this event provides access to the museum’s attic, where Lithuanian artist Saulius Valius pays tribute to the ship’s carpenters, stretching red wires across the space to sketch the hull of a boat, offering a suspended echo to the extraordinary work on the roof: Before docking the dream…
