Un vent nouveau / A new wind from Coco Téxèdre
June 18 – October 10, 2021
Chinon | FRANCE
Ribambelles and Pollens
Installation, painting
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the inauguration of the Chai Pierre et Bertrand Couly, the Nathalie Béreau gallery, which is in charge of the exhibition program, wished to share once again the pictorial work of the artist Coco Téxèdre, with the exhibition “Un vent nouveau”.
The works presented in the exhibition are for sale on site and in the e-gallery from June 18.
Exhibition
Virtual visit
Exhibition
Presentation
The exhibition presents two complementary facets of the artist 15 years apart: the installation “Ribambelles” from 2004 and his new paintings “Pollens” begun in 2019. The two parts of the exhibition will be distributed in two structures of the winery that will be accessible to the public (free entrance according to current sanitary measures) namely: the tasting room and the vat room.
The current exhibition is complemented by the presentation of ten years of posters of the exhibitions made since April 2011. They will be on permanent display in the staircase leading to the vats.
When Coco Téxèdre created “Ribambelles” in 2004 (exhibited at the Contemporary Gallery of the Town Hall of Chinon), the word of women on violence against them did not exist as it does today. The artist therefore tackles a subject that is still taboo via a large-scale installation: 22 shirts arranged touch and go like a long procession of unheard laments.
These shirts of the XIXth century, were part of the linen of a hotel that the artist buys on a flea market. Made of brown linen, thick and rough to the touch, each one bears the embroidered initials of the staff. Coco decides to cover the front with a marouflaged paper painted in a bright red on which her writing will express itself. The breasts, a rounded belly of a pregnant woman, a split sex, so many elements of the female body which become targets weaken the woman. The artist thus materializes in a round which could appear joyful the daily violence which she evokes by writing on one of the shirts each day of the week. This farandole, which reminds us of the paper cut-outs of childhood, hence its title, has a double function: to challenge the gaze on violence and to express a possible future more just by the implicit movement and by the common strength of all these united bodies.
The present seems to give reason to the artist who, through strong symbols, creates a singular plastic work.
Writing has always accompanied his work as an artist. Whether in this installation, his drawings and paintings. We find it in the new research presented at the winery and entitled “Pollens”. More classical in their structure (oil on paper mounted on canvas), the works tackle a subject just as powerful visually and in terms of content.
To the feminine of “Ribambelles”, is displayed the masculine of “Pollens” version microscopic vision.
Begun in 2019, this set of colorful paintings (frank ranges of red-yellow and blue-green) presents round or oval geometric shapes, bearing on their surface scarifications, dots. The compositions without depth show a certain dynamism. The elements thus present seem indeed in movement and swarm like a broth of culture. On some elements, writing is also present in a rhythm that can be found in other works of the artist: writing in black ink, tight, dense; repetition of words or phrases.
The pollen, dust of life containing the fertilizing fluid can only be useful in movement (wind, pollinator) from one plant to another. This source of life joins this other source of life that are the women represented by the artist. The artist thus continues her work with coherence, under different angles and shows us her permanent questioning on the future of our world. The earth and the woman are sources of life, which mistreated, will not ensure our common future. On colored notes, giving the illusion of lightness, Coco Téxèdre shares her commitment as a woman and as an artist.
Nathalie Béreau – June 2021