"Drawings" exhibition by Mohamed Ben Soltane at the Galerie Fahrenheit bookstore, until April 28, 2022: On the tenuous thread of Mohamed Ben Soltane's drawings
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Loading... - Walker Hughes
- 05 Apr 2022
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Moving quietly through the meditative silence of the Fahrenheit 451 gallery bookstore, nestled near the Phoenician and Roman ruins of Carthage, the black line, which runs through the immaculate whiteness of the background of Mohamed Ben Soltane's drawings, catches the visitor. After having carried out during its trajectory a few curves and a few lines at acute angles, the line, as an assured master of the plastic space, crosses from top to bottom the virginal whiteness of the paper support.
As we see in the series of drawings entitled "Crossing" (40 x 30 cm, 2022, permanent marker on paper), the majestic crossing of Mohamed Ben Soltane's thick black line experiences overlaps, intersections and returns. Just when the line crosses another, the work is generated. Thus, this action and this phenomenon of crossing constitute the crucial moment which defines the final destiny of the drawn work. Then a human figure and another appear. Through the intersection of the lines, one holds the other or kisses her or stands face to face and in profile. A red shape, like the two lips of a fleshy mouth, simulates a human heart. Sometimes this form is transformed under our gaze into a butterfly or a flower.
This red, — as Camille Corot (1796 -1875) mentioned when he spoke about the vermilion stain present in his paintings — is what animates the painting. The blood red of Ben Soltane becomes a sign to translate the love or the revolt that binds beings. The constancy of the drawing of the heart which sits there reminds us that we are made of flesh and blood, that we have a beating heart and that we are alive. In other words, the red constant, Ben Soltane's particular sign and symbol, adds extra life to its composition.
One could say that the drawing or the painting is in the image of our human body and our lives, an autonomous entity which functions, vibrates at the rhythm of its own. Enclosing this plot of intense red, it has components that articulate with each other, emitting an energy that attracts the viewer.
The intrinsic value of Ben Soltanian art lies not only in the quality of its layout, but in the infinitesimal dose of red as well as humor, love, social criticism, which the visual artist skilfully knows how to slip in the skin and mouth of his fictional characters. Read More…
