PAST EXHIBITIONS
A Group Exhibition
3 September – 22 October 2022
Curated by
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Rina Ralay-Ranaivo
Hakanto Contemporary
Alhambra Gallery · Ankadimbahoaka
Antananarivo · Madagascar
Like fleeting words on a blackboard, The New Hand is the hesitant beginning of four young Malagasy voices.
Are they artists, or not? Will they become artists?
These are the questions raised — this is the intrigue.
Here, however, the question is not about becoming an artist, but rather about revealing their commitment to creation, their desire to project themselves into the forms of today or tomorrow, in the beautiful carefreeness of youth.
At Hakanto Contemporary, we are proud to introduce to the public four young artists — emerging figures of the new Malagasy contemporary scene — through monumental and original works produced especially for this exhibition.
Fitiavana Ratovo, Andy Rasoloharivony, Sanka and Rose Kely Ranarivelo first took part in workshops organised by Hakanto Contemporary. These encounters are regularly held to encourage dialogue and exchange between artists from different disciplines — and above all, to reveal new energies.
Conceived as spaces for discussion and collective reflection, these meetings not only made it possible to identify the four artists presented here, but also to accompany them in shaping their creative ideas. At this stage of their journeys, all four are still engaged in a process of exploration. They continue to test aesthetic possibilities through — and beyond — their own media, experimenting with other materials and forms. The specific support offered in preparation for this exhibition placed particular emphasis on the importance of maintaining this openness within each of their practices.
From the outset, these young artists are driven by a desire to move forward, to cross new thresholds in their momentum. They seek new directions for their work, to nourish it and open it up to fresh perspectives. These artists-in-the-making strive to step outside their own comfort zones — their habits, even their solitude. And despite the uncertainty surrounding the path they have chosen, they remain steadfast. The urge to experiment, to express oneself, or simply to exist, takes precedence over all else, resonating here in every gesture, proposition and material.
Image, metal, terracotta, textile, paper — materials intertwine in a play of dialogue, contrast and confrontation. They reflect a form of plurality that finds its point of convergence in the intentions of the works, all nourished by personal histories and individual social experiences. This is perhaps what gives early works their particular charm, and what defines the strength of these young artists’ pieces in particular: they present themselves to the world as self-portraits of their makers.
In the specific case of these installations, the strength of each proposal lies in its sense of balance and precision — for there is no exercise more perilous than speaking of oneself and one’s own universe, faced with the dilemma of form and representation.
Drawing on her family history, Rose Kely Ranarivelo reinterprets, through her piece, a moment she holds dear: Tsarasaotra. Using multiple media — including ceramics, wood and painting — the artist abstractly reconstructs, on a dreamlike table, the elements of this familial moment. Inspired by the essences of her dual Franco-Malagasy culture, her arrangements resonate with cultural and social references of taste and aesthetic sensibility.
To create his work, Fitiavana Ratovo appropriated a construction principle encountered in everyday life. This series of sculpted metal sheets, hung like a gallery of portraits, represents members of a community sharing the same vision, the same values, and projecting the same future. Iray lalana — literally “sharing the same path” — resonates as a wish for a collective awakening within a society in crisis.
Through the force of material and the power of image, Andy Rasoloharivony invites the viewer into a church to experience The Urgency of Faith. In a striking play of contrasts, the video artist presents powerful symbols of Christian faith within a construction-site setting. Natural daylight filtering into this mystical and sacred space brings the experience to its climax.
Sanka, for her part, presents a first work that highlights her long experience as a portrait draughtswoman. The piece is composed of a series of original portraits alongside their reproductions. Through this installation, which plunges us into the depth and intensity of the gaze — the window of the soul — the artist recalls her beginnings in drawing: at the age of four, a tender memory linked to her mother and primary school. The work returns her to the moment of first gestures and to the dream of becoming an artist.
La nouvelle main, — a sketch of an uncertain future, yet carried by the certainty of four young hopes and their desire to make, to shape, and to fabricate their own time.
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Rina Ralay-Ranaivo
September 2022
