What’s on your mind when you enter your residency at the Indian Ocean Icon Library?
Lionel Lauret: Telling who we are in Reunion, especially to the younger generation who don’t necessarily realize it, by diving into a collection of old pictures, which I have selected and installed in my witty way, always spontaneous and unplanned, instinctively as I always have do…the chance to meet, the desire to tell stories, if not…
“Always”, starting in childhood with your sister Elsa, we often think in front of this kind of purely graphic… aesthetic?
Creative movement, for him as for me, already a toddler, like most children, is naturally coupled, in the moment, every day, in the proliferation of ideas with, always still, joy and humor, between cuts, coloring, collages, “painting”, in short images to express ourselves in integrated, unconscious, poetic aesthetic logic, in complete spontaneity… and it never stops.
It must be said that the two of you were born in a house blessed by the god of culture, imagination, and literature…
I have no doubt inherited an abundant and creative spirit from both my parents, a father (Edmond) in particular who was very similar to me with a desire to create, and my mother, an artist with an extreme aesthetic outlook. !… My sister became a graphic designer and illustrator and I am, in short, a visual artist, and are all passionate, without ever getting hung up on what we just finished to start new projects better each time, new from any ulterior motive. This need to create is as important as the need to eat inherited from our minds…
Back to this project, Unlimited People which is far from over, what motivates you?
This image mine is the Iconoteca where I was able to spend three months living, intrigued by the history of our island and its neighbors with a look that reveals all the secrets of the settlement. Where we come from, who we are and, for once, looking back to better understand, understand and manage the present and the future. I had been fascinated by the beauty of this portrait hidden in this image bank we had, and challenged by the desire to highlight it, as I was able to do then with the loud exhibition for Roussin’s engraving for the Léon Dierx Museum, only a small format that I attempted to stage with arms my usual painted picture, colorful modernity entourage to catch the eye. And then at the Iconotheque, where Daniel Gagneur greeted me, this mural of the population movement presented itself, only a discenography with a focus on the faces of humanity placed there in its striking diversity. Idea a Craft icon, to realize the installation called to surrender the entire island. Saint-André to begin with, then the current Port, before soon reaching Saint-Jo and then other cities… A nomadic fair was the idea… So that people, all of them, see this and say to themselves ” This is us! by contemplating the humans from which they were born, and coming from everywhere.
A real human, from yesterday, with a simple and… proud look?
The finally positive picture of our roots shows the beauty in our history and also, especially by using morphing, to unite the characteristics of each tribe under the same face that exudes harmony :). in a world threatened with oblivion…
The entire installation, in La Friche, translates your words wonderfully, between close-ups, collective photos, giant triptychs and music to accompany this captivating journey!
The music is by Rodolphe and Yohann Legras, both cousins and musicians who have chosen to base their contemporary music here by highlighting, in repetitive trance mode, with a deliberate hypnotic effect, instruments from all countries concerned with our population, India, Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Europe, and that respectively cling to the images scrolling across the screen, to amplify the visual universe and widen the horizons of sensations such awakenings evoke.
Ambition succeeds! And then ? This work has a long term scope and knowing you, we envision a sequel… “legacy”, right?
Yes! The project, gradually, grew and imposed the idea of a fixed and no longer nomadic place, but permanent, like a museum, on the island, and one dedicated to a settlement, to be precise…
A return to the old idea of a Civilization House?…
It was, however, a place reserved for Historical imagery and remembrance, in addition to the affiliation of the Iconotheque and the named “ icon» will be an extension, closer to people all the time. Since I am not a specialist in this, but an artist, I found a partner. In this case two women. One, chartered accountant, land and politics specialist, Katy Hoarau. The other, a professional in cultural development, especially for Réunion Métis, Catherine Dostes. To make this place what will be a Lighting Workshop » room with permanent immersion exhibition on the history of the settlement.
Where is it ideally located?
I’ve been thinking about it and working on it for a year … A priori in the South, but not necessarily you have to find wastelands, old buildings (and there are many that have been useless for a long time ) and especially the city government and the support needed to make it happen… It’s a dream childhood! For great artistic sharing. Given the receipt given to “Infinite People”with guaranteed emotion and impact on the young class who harness eloquent content to work in the workshops and with enthusiasm, on their forefathers, we tell ourselves that ” Icone” should be unanimous, even among those who didn’t attend the exhibition… Wait and see 😉
