:
The collection of these artist gourds will be exhibited at the Ferrero Gallery from May 3 to 31. It is not a commercial exhibition, nothing will be for sale, except, of course, the exhibition catalog.
The “cougourdon,” in Niçois, is the gourd, the dry squash as hard as wood. Local tradition, since the 19th century, holds that the cougourdon is given at the beginning of spring to wish prosperity and good health to one’s surroundings.
Decorated by local artisans, a market is dedicated to it in front of the Cimiez Monastery, called the Cougourdons Festival, festival in the sense of celebration since the event is an occasion for folk dance shows. But nowadays, the cougourdon tends to become outdated due to the lack of renewal of its traditional imagery.
Thus the Ferrero Gallery, in the playful and good-natured tradition of the Nice School, wanted to give this venerable cougourdon a fresh twist. Its director, Guillaume Aral, asked about forty contemporary artists from the region to revisit this theme.
Prominent artists from the Nice School responded enthusiastically to this artistic challenge: Sacha Sosno, Claude Gilli, Ben Vautier, Patrick Moya, and Jean Mas.
But younger artists are also participating in this project: Stefano Bombardieri, Gabriel Martinez, Jean-Antoine Hierro, the list goes on.
The result is incredibly diverse and inventive. Most artists worked directly on the squash with paint, collages, or various interventions, others reproduced it in ceramics or paper, while some made it the subject of their photography.
The cougourdon is becoming trendy!
