With the artists Rose Kely Ranarivelo . Andy Rasoloharivony . Fitiavana Ratovo . Sanka
As the words flying on a blackboard, The new hand is a combination of sketches by four young Malagasy. Are they artists or not? Will they become artists? These are the questions raised! The intrigue! Indeed, here it is not a question of becoming an artist, but rather of revealing their commitment to creation, their desire to project themselves into the forms of the present or tomorrow in the beautiful youth recklessness.
At Hakanto Contemporary today, we are proud to reveal to the public four young artists, emerging figures of the new Malagasy contemporary scene through monumental and new works produced especially for the exhibition.
Rose Kely Ranarivelo, Andy Rasoloharivony, Fitiavana Ratovo and Sanka first participated in workshops organized by Hakanto Contemporary. Meetings that are regularly scheduled to encourage dialogue and exchange between artists from different disciplines. And above all to reveal new energies.
Imagined as spaces for discussion and collective reflection, these meetings have not only helped to identify the four young artists of this exhibition, but also accompanied them in the development of their creativity. At this stage of their career, they are all still in seeking their own process. They continue to explore aesthetic possibilities through and from their own matters to the point of experimenting with other mediums and other forms. The specific mentorship they received in preparation for this exhibition emphasized the importance of maintaining this curiosity in each of their work approaches.
Since the beginning, these young artists are driven by the desire to take new steps in their work. They have a desire to move forward, as well as to find new directions for their work, to enrich it and give it new perspectives. These aspiring artists are looking for a way to get out of their own comfort, out of their rules and out of their solitude. Despite the uncertain context of the future, they are determined to pursue it. The desire to experiment, to express themselves or simply to exist on every gesture, proposal, and material.
Images, metal, terracotta, textiles, or paper … the materials are combined in contrast between confrontation and dialogue. They reflect a form of plurality which finds its genesis in the remarks of the works, all nourished by personal stories and social experiences of each one. This is what makes the charm and the spirit of the first artworks in general, and the quality of the pieces of these young artists in particular, they reveal themselves to the world as self-portraits of their authors. In the specific case of these installations, the strength of each proposal lies in this form of balance and accuracy, because there is no more delicate exercise than talking about oneself and one’s own universe, with the dilemma raised by the formulas and the representations.
TSARASAOTRA Through her family history, Rose Kely Ranarivelo reinterprets through her piece a moment she particularly likes: Tsarasaotra. Through several mediums such as ceramics, wood, painting, the artist restores on a dreamt table the components of this family moment. Drawing on the essences of his dual French-Malagasy culture, the installation resonates with cultural and social references in terms of taste and aesthetics.
IRAY LALANA To realize his work, Fitiavana Ratovo has adopted a popular technique of construction. This series of sculpted metal sheets installed as gallery portraits, represents the members of a community who share the same vision, the same values and the same future. Iray lalana—which literally means sharing the same path—sounds like a wish for a collective awareness of our society in crisis.
L’URGENCE DE LA FOI Through the strength of the material and the power of the image, Andy Rasoloharivony invites and engages the viewer to step into a church to experience L’urgence de la foi. In a striking game of contrast, the artist illustrates strong symbols of the christian faith in the middle of a construction site. The natural daylight, which seeps into this mystical and sacred space, brings the experience to its climax.
IRETO MASO MIJERY AHY MIBANJINA ANAO MAMPITAMBERINA NY LASA NY VITA NATAO Sanka takes us into the depth and power of the eyes, the window to the soul. She presents a first work that emphasizes her long experience as a portrait drawer. This piece is composed of a series of original portraits and some sketches along the black entrance of the gallery. Through this installation, the artist recalls her beginnings in drawing.
The new hand, a drawing of the future full of uncertainty, but with the certainty of four young hopes with their desires to do and shape their time.
Between a retrospective and a tribute, the exhibition is dedicated to Emile Rakotondrazaka, better known as Ramily or affectionately called Dadamily. Indeed, Ramily is the father of Malagasy contemporary black and white photography. The exhibition will be a moment to highlight the genius of a photographer, a pioneer of the black and white, and an outstanding laboratory worker.
EMILE RAKOTONDRAZAKA . RAMILY
Emile Rakotondrazaka, also known as Ramily or Dadamily, was born on September 25, 1939, in Antohomadinika, a district of the city of Antananarivo. The eldest of 10 siblings, he is the son of the carpenter Rakotozafy and Razanapanalina.
At the age of ten, in 1949, he was raised by Pastor Rasolonjatovo, whose son was a photographer. His first encounter with photography began when he followed his “adoptive” brother to carry out “identity card operations” in the towns and villages of Madagascar, whilst Madagascar was still under colonial rule.
In 1956, at the age of 17, Ramily worked as an assistant photo laboratory technician at PHOTOFLEX, located in Analakely, Avenue de l’Indépendance, and run by the French photographer Mesli d’Arloze. His talents in developing darkroom photography techniques began to draw his attention. His employer greatly appreciated his mastery of chemical processes, and Ramily excelled as a laboratory technician.
In 1968, he opened his first development laboratory—still very modest but already very well known—in the historic area of Ankadifotsy, in the basement of a bookstore run by his wife.
Two years later, in 1970, he moved to Itaosy, where he relocated his development laboratory, which had become larger and more sophisticated. A first for Madagascar, he then created a photography studio and later on, would even start a wooden framing workshop.
Between the 1970s and 2000s, Ramily successively exhibited in the premises of Air Madagascar, at the Albert Camus Cultural Centre (now the French Institute of Madagascar), at the CITE (Centre d’Information Technique et Économique [Technical and Economic Information Centre]), at Alliance Française de Tananarive and even in the streets of the city of Antananarivo, with a group of photographer friends. He has also participated in several editions of the Mois de la Photo, the Photoana Festival, and a biennial of photographic encounters in the Indian Ocean, which all took place in Antananarivo. On two occasions, the international magazine “Revue Noire” even devoted articles to him.
Ramily is also a founding member of two photographers’ associations including the “Association des Photographes de Madagascar” and the “Association des Photographes de Tananarive.”
Among his last public appearances, in 2007, he participated in an international exhibition of contemporary art, “30 et Presque-Songes” initiated by Joël Andrianomearisoa in Antananarivo.
An icon of photography, Ramily is the reference point for silver prints in Madagascar, with his career reaching its peak from the 1970s. He stopped his work as a laboratory technician in 2003, the year he suffered a heart attack. Ramily passed away on March 26, 2017, in Antananarivo, leaving behind hundreds of poetic landscapes, carefully crafted prints, black and white wedding and solemn event shots. Above all, he left an unprecedented passion for photography, generously shared with younger generations of photographers.
Ry Tanindrazanay malala ô ! Ry Madagasikara soa, Ny fitiavanay anao tsy miala, Fa ho anao ho anao doria tokoa.
Oh our cherished country! Oh beautiful Madagascar, Our love for you remains, And will remain forever.
Following the tradition of nearly two years of exhibitions at Hakanto Contemporary, we systematically question context, history and our present, and allude to the future.
For this new opus, while not turning our back on custom, our message revolves around the idea of nation – country – land. And that past – present – future continues to set the tempo for this new musicality.
The land We often speak of this red island, this scrap of country off a continent’s coast, out in the ocean, far from the world’s shore. We. We from the great ocean, as Serge Henri Rodin so appropriately insists. Madagascar. Surrounded by sea and still a great mystery.
Statement ? Questioning ? Love ? Distance ? Independence ? The idea is not to provide answers, but rather to form an emotional observation using multidisciplinary formulae. Actions in black and white leading to the assertion of a colourless flag. Hearts torn to enable the ink of hope to pour out. A song of love springing from religious effluvia. Or possibly a family dish transformed into fireworks from the height of our pain. There are various answers. Some lie in dialogue and some in confrontation, but also in tension.
Act of love Ny fitiavanay So here is a declaration of love from 26 Malagasy artists to their dear land. 26 referring to 60. 26 artists. 60 years of independence. How can we make the present with this anniversary? How can we break down history? Or reshape histories? And how can we tell the story of the future?
Reshape one’s history, Rewrite one’s memory, Slip anchors, Change one’s roots, And build, build, again and forever.
Michèle Rakotoson
Ny tena sy fo fanahy anananay Our body, our heart and our soul
An echoing melody that allows hearts and souls to speak with boundless freedom. Yes, let us speak, for it is time.
– Joël Andrianomearisoa . September 2021
Ry Tanindrazanay malala ô Madagascar national anthem since 1958 Lyrics . Pastor Rahajason Music . Norbert Raharisoa
Group exhibition :mentalKLINIK . Rina Ralay-Ranaivo . Temandrota
A proposal by Joël Andrianomearisoa
Hakanto Contemporary Antananarivo
Exposition from 27 February to 4 September 2021
Beyond all you are mine.
A joyful affirmation in a time where the future remains uncertain. The end seems far away! And what will tomorrow be? A declaration of life at a time when we lack breath. How to breathe? With whom to breathe? An assurance of strong friendship even when the world today seems helpless. Will we ever dance? A kiss? A state of love when naive patriotism points its nose too much.
Three artists deliver themselves to affirm that we are still together, inspired and alive. The breath of time belongs to us and our desires go beyond all horizons.
The first is a Malagasy force. Temandrota. He manipulates the earth, he kneads the fire, he triturates our hearts to give new resonances. In his immersive installation Kolondoy, he sketches new territories, new playgrounds to confront us with the questions of tomorrow and our deepest desires.
The second, from the Bosphorus to the banks of the Ikopa, the :mentalKLINIK blur the tracks of a game between materiality, luminosity and sentimentality. Without geography except that of the emotion. Between the idea of 2, 3 or more … The couple :mentalKLINIK invites us to question the idea of a new love and especially the one we carry on Antananarivo. Another love.
And the third, Rina Ralay Ranaivo who shares his heart between Antananarivo, Berlin and elsewhere, invokes in his piece Chapitre I, his fantasies, our ancestors and History along an imaginary river to cross. Once again, crossing water, crossing time, crossing the other, crossing borders, to find ourselves and to affirm that beyond everything you are mine.
To make the desire, the desire to be in the world, to slip into the caress of the wind, and let yourself be carried away.
Exhibition from 08 February 2020 to 08 February 2021
“I am nothing. I will never be anything. I could not wish to be nothing. That aside, I hold all the dreams of the world within me.”
Fernando Pessoa
Here is here. From here, we look out on the world; from here we dream the world too. Let us muse, let us speak of dreams, let us dream – for by dreaming, we can assert a new Madagascan energy through its current creative forms with regard to artists and forms of expression from other places.
There are no prescribed media in the message. The exhibition asserts the polyphony of forms in an exploration of time, with all its illusions and realities. The menu is not a set one. The menu knows no borders. Chef Lalaina Ravelomanana sets the tone, offering a fresh take on a popular Madagascan dish to the beat of Kristel’s Nofy rock.
The framework is the game, the diversity, the rule. A timeless couple from Istanbul, :mentalKLINIK, reinvents a new love, a new game of love, opposite the new words sketched by Môssieur Njo. With a diversity of lines, the young designer Domi Sanji merges his lands, confronting Alexandre Gourçon’s infinite folds. Ramily, the half-forgotten father of contemporary Madagascan photography, rediscovers light in his iconic series spanning desert and luxuriant vegetation. Plastic artist Donn sets his work between nightmare and affection, while choreographer Judith Manantenasoa summons up the sweetness of chaos. All bathed in our wild Madagascan melancholy, with a perpetual literary dialogue between Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Elie Rajaonarison.
Improbable encounters that motivate and surprise. Craft meets song. Photography is dress. Words become canvases. Let us weave literature, light fires, dance architecture, speak of fashion and clothe the present. Let us embroider cuisine and smell the flowers. Dreams are my reality, another kind of reality. The dreams of Iarivo. The reveries of the world. Let us drift away. Let us dream.
For here in Madagascar, we reach all the dreams of the world.
