Chrono-chroma

The Chrono-chroma exhibition, whose name means color-time, brings together four artists, among them two works in collaboration. Therefore it shows three practices.

I use the term “practice” because what is presented is between the performance, the conceptual project and the works themselves, that is to say material and in situ things. We could add the reference to the installation but this being eminently temporary, it is better to merge it with the performance.

The originality of the project lies in this hybrid and enigmatic existence marked by the word “between”.

All kinds of works almost always leave some sort of trace. Once the exhibition is over, what will remain are mostly memories and especially photographs. In the time of its existence, there are objects that are visible, even if they are not absolutely “existence”.

This is evident with the devices and series framed with thermal papers marked with sunburns by HAO Jingfang & WANG Lingjie. It’s just as clear with the lines drawn on the walls by ZHAO Duan. It is less so for the work of Diane CHÉRY whose paintings and tapestries are rather stages in a work in development but her colorful fabrics and costumes are an integral part of the performance.

The conceptual project is the strongest dimension here, present through thoughtful and meditated practices at the crossroads of Chinese thought and Western art of the last fifty years.

For Duan, the driving concept of his activity is that of a seismograph of time and the sensations experienced, with also the meeting of the other as a gaze or as an accomplice – the other being both the spectator and the idea that he makes it the artist when she includes it in her production.

For HAO Jingfang & WANG Lingjie, it is the concept of art produced by nature – a cosmic nature on the scale of the universe with sun, light, comet, rain.

For CHÉRY, it is the concept of a strange performance, which is neither dance intended for spectacle nor provocation for an initiated art public but a distended, self-centered event, which falls into reality like a natural phenomenon .

As for the performance, it takes on different faces with each of the artists.

ZHAO Duan’s performance is two-sided: producer of traces and moment of action and perception.

That of HAO Jingfang & WANG Lingjie is placed at a distance, encapsulated in the objects which collect it – performance of natural elements.

That of CHÉRY occurs here and now (hic et nunc) and disappears when it is finished. A strange performance which first brings to mind the Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica’s use of parangoles, colored capes which drew spectators and artists into the dance performance. The strange thing is that CHÉRY cuts off the performance of the public who are in some way excluded from it and find themselves facing something foreign, closed in on itself like a hermetic work. His work has something of a work that lives and breathes while remaining apart, out of the loop.

As I describe the “between” of these practices, I realize that beyond color and temporality, they have an enigmatic common point: a quiet desire to preserve their strangeness and mystery. As I wrote in my first text on the work of ZHAO Duan, there is a search for both the encounter and the secret. The work must be neither obvious nor straightforward, it must touch us while keeping the message and formal properties secret. It is a way of taking a position today in relation to both abstract formalism and symbolic communication by showing that a work is neither a thing nor a message but a subtracted and reserved presence.

Diane CHÉRY 

Diane CHÉRY (France, 1993), is a visual artist, painter and choreographer.

She graduated from the Estienne school, Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, then Beaux-Arts in Paris with Félicitations in 2020. She trained in the painting workshops of Jean Michel Albérola, Stéphane Calais and in the performance dance workshop by Emmanuelle Huynh.

Diane CHÉRY has participated in numerous group exhibitions and performative projects. Since 2015, his work has been shown in galleries, museums, fairs and performance halls.

(FR: Philharmonie of Paris, Hangar Y, Le19M, Grand Palais Ephémère, Salon Art Paris, Eugène Delacroix Museum, Sabine Bayasli Gallery, Young Creation Gallery, When the Flowers Save Us Gallery, National Dance Center, Wallonia-Brussels Center Paris , Crous Cultural Center in Paris, Champigny sur Marne Biennale, the Floral Exhibition Park.)

She has worked for the artists: Boris Charmatz, Angelica Mesiti, Esther Ferrer, Lenio Kakléa, Henrik Vibskov, Ingri Fiksdal, Jennifer Lacey, Katrin Schnabl, Sky Cubacub, and Emmanuelle Huynh.

Her work is mainly between painting, performance and textile arts which she combines and accomplishes individually.

An exchange at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago allowed him to develop the practice of weaving and the creation of costumes. She trained in Emmanuelle Huynh’s dance-performance workshop at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, and with numerous dancers from the American scene from Alwin Nikolais’ company during a residency in Maine in the summer of 2019.

HAO Jingfang & WANG Lingjie

HAO Jingfang and WANG Lingjie, Chinese artists who work in duet, between China and France, on several disciplines: installation, video, performance, painting, drawings etc. They are very interested in nature, often through mechanical systems they build. They also work with elements composed of small movements of the universe, like wind, wave, or a falling leaf. Sometimes they experience the movement of a single point on a large black background, like a small human being in the universe. They also play the role of «light catchers» thanks to their sensitivity to light changes. The invisible and untouchable light, through their magical hands, becomes unpredictable.

Their works are exhibited mainly in museums and international art centers, including the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Palais de Tokyo, the Biennale de Lyon, etc.

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ZHAO Duan

Zhao Duan, born in 1981 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, graduated from École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse in France in 2010. Currently, she lives and works in Paris and Noisy-le-Sec.

Zhao Duan’s artistic approach focuses on the notions of contact and experience. She explores her work through a variety of mediums and examines the triadic relationship between the body, action and time. She favors a recording method that she describes as “imprints”, allowing performance to be linked to painting and drawing, she seeks to leave marks and fertile heuristic traces.

In 2012, Zhao Duan won the Michel Journiac Prize in France. His works are part of the collections of numerous institutions, both private and public, and have been widely exhibited in France and abroad. His exhibitions have taken place in prestigious venues such as the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, the Mac Val Contemporary Art Museum in Paris, the Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai, WU Space in Shenyang, and the Ludwig Museum in Germany, among others.

Her works are exhibited mainly in museums and international arts centers, notably the Center Pompidou Paris, the Palais de Tokyo, the Lyon Biennale, etc.

Overview of the exhibition