ILLÉS SARKANTYU AT CAP ROYAN

Illés Sarkantyu is invited by the Centre d’Arts Plastiques de Royan to take part in the exhibition “L’Echelle” from June 15 to September 1, 2024.

This summer, the Centre d’Arts Plastiques de Royan brings together paintings and drawings, photographs and sculptures, and the works of 26 artists on the theme of The Scale (L’Echelle). Jacob’s ladder, ascents, and descents from the cross… the ladder theme is very present in art history. It is also present in contemporary art. A geometry of perpendicular lines, ascending or descending, guides our gaze between full and empty. It constructs the alternation between light and shadow, between matter’s heaviness and air’s transparency or lightness. Scale measures distance. Beyond a cadence, it can give rhythm to endless continuity/discontinuity. A tuning fork for space, its motif signals immensity. It opens the passage from one space to another, from floor to ceiling, from earth to sky… The Ladder adds to the world. The small gouache by Albert Ràfols-Casamada that we have chosen to invite to this exhibition simply expresses the two meanings of the Ladder: its drawn motif invites us to look towards an open space; the wave of gouache, in blue and earth tones, enlarges the vastness of the world that painting offers us. Like the miniature silhouettes that painters used to set in the midst of imposing landscapes, here is a minimal figure, fragile but upright: the motif of scale gives scale.This exhibition is in no way scientific. It has been put together intuitively, to open windows onto the research of artists who are dear to us – and to allow them to adopt a particular angle of view, by making a selection from among their works, or by proposing previously unpublished works.10 artists have created a work especially for this exhibition. We’ll be paying attention to the mysteries that lurk in the shadows of the ladder, but also in the whiteness of Carrara marble, to the regular steps of a scaffold and the missing rungs of the ladder, or to a snag in the ladder… and to the infinity that brings the ladder so close to the spiral. The humor of social climbing (invented by Jan Voss) coexists here with interiority and spirituality, just as balance and power coexist with tilting and falling: from a work of art to the infinity of art.

Jean-Pascal Léger

With works by

Pierre-Yves BOHM / Philippe BRAME / Pierre BURAGLIO / Dominique DE JOUX / Michel DIEUZAIDE / Antoine GRAZIANI / Claude HASSAN / Thibault HAZELZET / Lucien HERVÉ / Guy LE MEAUX / Anna MARK / Thomas MÜLLER / Paul PAGK / Pascale PIRON / Michèle POITRENAUD / Albert RÀFOLS- CASAMADA / Pascal RAVEL / Antoni ROS BLASCO / Jean-Patrice ROZAND / Martine ROZAND / François SAGNES / Illés SARKANTYU / Anne SAUSSO CASAMADA / Pascal RAVEL / Antoni ROS BLASCO / Jean-Patrice ROZAND / Martine ROZAND / François SAGNES / Illés SARKANTYU / Anne SAUSSOIS / Hanns SCHIMANSKY / Pierre TAL COAT / Jan VOSS

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

“L’Echelle”
Centre d’Arts Plastiques
Espace d’art contemporain des Voûtes du Port
19, quai Amiral Meyer, Royan

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday (July 14 included)
June: 2.30pm-6.30pm
July 1 and August-September 1: 2pm-7pm.

Free admission