Elias Kurdy, « Shadows of History »

Offering a reflection on the memory of civilizations, Elias Kurdy creates a dialogue between ancient archaeological forms and future landscapes, linking the strata of history to our contemporary concerns. He creates trompe-l'oeil fictions in which fake ceramic and plaster remains — half-built or half-destroyed — question the sculptural gesture and the role of ancient objects in our societies. What relationship do we have with reality? How much of it is imaginary?

For his first exhibition at the gallery, we are presenting a collection of works based on the principle of the artifact, through two series: the first, composed of terracotta and plaster sculptures, grouped together in a corpus entitled Où sont passés les vivants [Where Have the Living Gone]; the second, entitled Shadows of History, consists of a series of drawings on fabric reproducing large-format Assyrian bas-reliefs (640–620 BC) observed by the artist at the British Museum in London.

Elias Kurdy thus summons the viewer's memory, which he makes collective, and invites them to rediscover representations that are familiar to them — sometimes common to several cultures — and to question the status of collections, the displacement of historical objects, and the power relations that accompany them.