Remed, "Plenium" Show at David Bloch Gallery Marrakech

Just before Christmas, David Bloch Gallery opened their last show for 2016 — “Plenium” A solo show by Guillaume Alby also known as REMED, currently residing in Madrid, whose works is easily recognizable by it’s unique calculated lines. Here, REMED gives us a glimpse of what embodies his latest show.

Interview by Mark Changco.
Photo provided by David Bloch Gallery.
Art by Remed.

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Tell us what was your creative vision for this show “Plenium”.

I can not say I did had a vision for the show. But I can say the vision of various instants has been fixed on each of the pieces during its process of creation. The intention, or the vision, became real through the act, through the gesture of the arm prolonguated with the hand, the brush being the extension of the finger, still connected to the mind and soul.

Each canvas, drawing and sculpture, is a sum up, or the result of the many realities that could have happened while my hand was acting. I don’t really think, but rather feel. I see movement, and make a stop in motion when I think it is time for it. Seeking harmony, while I enjoy a specific curve, line or shape, a chosen instant to become the one I live.

“PLENIUM, Matière de l’Un Visible” is a reference to the abstract essence of matter, to the yet invisible but infinite potential of consciousness, to the power of intention, seed of all reality.

So this show naturally present a retrospective of the mind states I have been passing through in the latests months of my wandering. Each piece being the mirror of who I feel I am, or want to be, or what I try to see.

What will be the significant difference of this show compared to your previous ones?

PLENIUM is the most complete display of my researches and results.

On one hand, there is a series of “classic” pieces made of horizontal and vertical lines around which curves are sliding and flowing. “I am (T)here”, “Homme Oiseau”, “Visage Voyage”, “Ex Latent”. Those have a cuadricular structure, usually built around a vertical mediane, by the contrast of colors, layered many times in a process of juxtaposition, so to reach a boldness that allow the absence of the outline.

I am (T)here
Homme Oiseau
Visage Voyage
Ex Latent Pre Exastant

On the other hand you will see a large series of canvas only made of curves, where the mecanic matrix is dissimulated in an attempt to liberate lines from it. In this series “Femme Sireleone”, “Man with Orion and Sun”, “Woman with Moon and Earth”, there is absolutely no vertical, horizontal or diagonal. All is illusion of free flow.

“Amour Lumière” is also a great example of getting the lines free, where movement and stillness blend, when figurative and abstract fields fuse into one.

Femme Sireleone
Man with Orion and The Sun
Woman with Earth And Moon

Another series “Couple en movement”, “Eau mets deus Flammes”, “Agua de Fuego” and “Fuego de Agua” represent the next step in the experimentation. Beside the fact of ignoring the rectangular matrix, colors and shapes appears in synchronicity. Because I do not sketch with a pencil but a brush, thanks to its width and texture, the line become a shape. Meanwhile creation, those shapes shock or fuse, the definite and indefinite complete one another. During its materialization, the final artwork is never perceivable. The pleasure of creating extends through the whole process.

Couple en Mouvement
Eau Met Deux Flammes
Agua De Fuego
Fuego de Agua

We also présent a serie of drawings as a tribute to the line, a song of gestures.

“Visage de Vie Vent”, “Il au Seul Oeil Bleu”, “Aile sera Vie” etc… The tool I use is permanent, there is no previous sketch, so each line is fruit of a mental journey through the whole paper before it lands where it needs to be. The full image can then be built around step by step. By rhyming or defying, it extends until the whole is completed. Those artworks are almost a derivation of automatic writing. Their title being the reminiscence of it.

Visage de Vie Vent
Il Au Seuil Oeil Bleu
Qu'Aile Sera Vie

Besides all those, proper to this redisency, I have been able to put in shape a volume I was thinking about since my first trip to North Africa. The jar of clay. I always seen the body of a woman, and I feel like many did too since for ever. So I spent time with a malhem, a master turner, in order to create « Woman with Moon » and « Man with sun ». Simplicity to its extreme, the woman is made of only one continuous sinusoïdal curve, while the man is made of a straight line ending in a reverse bell forging his head.

“Woman with Moon” and “Man with sun”

Once I started to spend some time in the village with the kraftworkers, I was ver happy. Because it brought me back to a spherical sense of time. I felt attracted, almost hypnotized by the endless circular movement of the vertical vortex. A gate to our ancient roots, a présent tribute to the universal myth of human being made out of clay. That’s why I needed to create a canvas of a turner giving birth to a jar. “Le Tourneur et la jarre” gave me a lot of pleasure while using my brush painting curves on the canvas as if it was my hands shaping them in the clay.

Le Tourneur et La Jarre (Sketch)
Homme et Jarre

Longtime ago, beyond my will, North African Art introduced me to the practice of géométry, fractals and abstraction within the différent kraft of the local cultures. “Khamsa”, also known as “the hand of Fatima” is my favorite symbol. because it’s gréât exemple of the figurative becoming abstrac. I enjoy the strong power of suggestion, allowing the endless potencial of interprétations thanks to the use of simplicity.

Khamsa (Sketch)
Hermasakina

I already painted a few versions of it in my earlier exhibit at DavidBloch Gallery, you could see ancient icône fused with a face of a being. But this time, in “Nahar Khamsa”, the face of the healing hand is juxtapozed over the body of a woman with a moon, holding the same curves of the clay jar. Right after, the night brought « Leil Khamsa » as the opposite twin of Nahar. There, the body of a man is standing in the center of the icône.

Nahar Khamsa
L'eil Khamsa
Woman and Man

In opposition to these very sensual works, definitly warm and organic, I eventually worked with metal. The exhibition wouldn’t have been complete without “L’Est Haut Levant”. It is a dive into ancient alphabets and symbols. Pure mechanic presenting two attitude in one volume. Two interconnected symbols fused into one sequence.

L'est Haut Levant
L’Est Haut Levant
L’Est Haut Levant
L'est Haut Levant

One side is directly inspired by the last letter of the berbere alphabet, tamazight, also know as “The Free Man”. It is a double trident shaping a man touching both earth and sky. I added over his head a sort of receptor. The whole being framed in a arrow going up. Eventhough it stands like a pillar, a hole in his head let the light pass through. If you turn 45 degree, you would be able to read the earlier attitude. The being is sitting in a meditative position, also with an empty space in the center of his face. On the side, the arrow brings the energy down. Two shades of blue orn the double cylinder, and a golden square is painted on top of his antenna.

Alphabet Berbere

What is your favorite piece? Why?

It is very hard for me to say which piece is my favorite. I loved and love all them. Otherwise I would have painted over. I recognize myself and the world in each of them. They all represent something I feel in touch with, connected, comfortable. They are like a family. I feel they are alive. Sometimes I can see them move.

“Amour Lumière”, its timelessness, its simplicity, the powerfull movement of its lines and the softness of the characters sensuality, the genuine love in their attitude, the equilibrium and the very present golden emptyness inviting infinite gestures to happen, gives me a very pleasant feeling when I am in front of it. I hope you feel the same too.

Amour Lumiere

“Plenium” will run until January 21, 2017. For more information about the show, email: information@davidblochgallery.com

David Bloch Gallery
8 bis rue des Vieux Marrakchis
40000 Marrakech MAROC
+212 5 24 45 75 95

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