The Mediterranean Union for Modern Art, founded in 1946 by Raymond Thomas, Pierre Bonnard, and Henri Matisse, is organizing its biennial for the third time at the Château Grimaldi Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer. The theme of this edition revolves around violence and tolerance. Mrs. Simone Dibo-Cohen, president of U.M.A.M, is the organizer.
There are 65 artists from the Mediterranean shores exhibiting their works here until November 22, 2014. It was a difficult challenge to bring together people from countries, unfortunately, at war or under tension, but wasn’t organizing this biennial the very goal and challenge? The artist transcends the political realm; they can and indeed must deliver the message, bringing forth innovation and thereby leading the way for politics.
It is the artist who initiates changes, ‘revolutions’; it is the sculptor, the painter, the poet, or the writer who makes the public aware of the societal dramas. They deliver their message and, free from all contingency (electoral and popularity), are influenced only by their soul. They can invert the moral norm of the fable: the fox is perched on the tree while the crow lectures him.
The artist has a mission, a new missionary; they preach tolerance and living well with others. The 2014 biennial responds to current events, with artists denouncing extremism and fanaticism, blindness and fear, that dangerous cocktail leading to hate and violence. Death and Life or the other way around?
These women who, little by little, become veiled to the point of nonexistence, or conversely, who say no and display the beauty of their faces and their thirst for freedom. The tortured and hanged bodies, the empty crib, there’s no future, the child is absent! Black and white bodies, an image of the ambient Manichaeism of a world rushing towards its downfall.
The Christ broken on the cross seems to have moved beyond his sacrifice. The images invite us to question our certainties, these birds flying over an old farm, or is it a convent? Religion is heavily present, but without proselytism. The biennial brings together Christians, Jews, Muslims, and atheists. There is an eternal back and forth, a circular movement, and the sand never ceases to fall; History is not finished, it continues, and there we understand that through this worrying world, there is nevertheless always this glimmer of hope for a better tomorrow.
The biennial’s aim is a message of peace, love, and truth. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The answer is probably at Château Grimaldi in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
This biennial offers us freedom: the freedom to judge and think for ourselves.
Thierry Jan
