Maxime Simon & Emmanuel Abiteboul
Petrichor
2 december 2021 - 15 january 2022
Myriam Chair is proud to announce her inaugural exhibition entitled PETRICHOR, showing the recent works of artists Maxime Simon and Emmanuel Abiteboul. It takes place from December 2 2021 to January 15 2022, at 23 rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.
The Pétrichor fragrance, signed by the perfumer Paul Guerlain, subtly diffuses in the exhibition space and acquires the status of autonomous artwork. Specially conceived for the exhibition in collaboration with the Atelier du Parfumeur - l'IFF, it is the common thread between the works of Maxime Simon and Emmanuel Abiteboul.
It is through the most ancestral character of this scent that the artists present us with their symbolic works. Emmanuel Abiteboul and Maxime Simon project us into a natural world, from time immemorial, populated by symbolic and mystical entities. Maxime Simon conjures up images of ancient sculptures and figures evoking founding pagan myths. Dance plays a central role in the works of both artists, highlighting its use in ritual expression. Emmanuel Abiteboul explores the trace left by the human, plant and animal presence that animates the artist's work and questions our relationship to matter and time.
PETRICHOR
Adriana Bustamante
petrichor
The odour that arises from the earth when rain falls after a dry period.
From the ancient Greek πέτρα / petra ('stone') and ἰχώρ / ikhṓr ('fluid, blood'), ichor referring to the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.
Just a stone's throw from the Pantheon, a sanctuary and place of memory of the illustrious people of our history, the PETRICHOR exhibition is an ode to the metamorphoses of nature. It is storm that is staged at the Galerie Myriam Chair, in three acts marvellously put together by the artists Emmanuel Abiteboul and Maxime Simon. Paul Guerlain signed the perfume Pétrichor, a real olfactory work.
We are too late! After the rain, after the carnage, the memorable smell of petrichor never deceives, water and blood have already flowed. This is the story of this incredible transformation.
The forest is calm, a chrysalis is asleep in a soft bed of moss (A golden chrysalis sleeping in soap), yet the light is a harbinger of the storm and the barrier between the realm of natural phenomena and us seems to have been crossed (Sacre). The primordial spirits emerge from the bushes and come to meet us, and we become their audience. The show is ready to begin.
Emmanuel Abiteboul's Thriae represent the three dancers of the Delphi column, symbols of the plant world. Their contours are undefined, the figures seem to float in the wind. Their surfaces move, the rain and the violent storm have left their marks. Yet the sacredness does not fail, as their white gold halos testify.
Inspired by Pina Baush's staging of The Rite of Spring, Maxime Simon's triptych Pétrichor evokes this transformation. The bodies of these dancers successively follow the tempos of insouciance, anger and appeasement. The sky above them accompanies them like a metronome.
The rain is pounding. The blood flows. The smell of petrichor fills the forest. It is a kind of caress after the violent storm.
Some have hidden. Some have disappeared. L'empreinte du phasme in Emmanuel Abiteboul's wax tablet invites remembrance. The body is absent and yet its totemic and Christ-like appearance calls out to us. It is as if the trace makes it more present than its very presence.
A place of remembrance. Panic is followed by a sudden and luminous epiphany, the sky clears, the screen takes over. The traces remain. The faces seem to be frozen in stone and simultaneously engraved in our memories. Unlike Pygmalion, the men here take on the form of statues (Simulacre), this mutation is not quite complete for some of them, whose living flesh still shows through.
The yellow thread recalls the stormy episode. These figures become immortal, a kind of fetish. They close the cycle but can also start it again.
We can keep the smell of petrichor with us and keep it with us for a long time, it can even become a form of mantra "after the rain, always comes the good weather".
In partnership with
