Fidèles, fidèls
End of residency exhibition
VENUE: Casino Display, 1, rue de la Loge, L-1945 Luxembourg
Stand your ground. Loyalty is not a political construct in itself. It is an underlying condition of resistance and revolutionary movements. Whether in political, spiritual, cultural, community, family, historical, or contemporary contexts, loyalty plays a role. It embodies the flexibility and nuance that promise both continuity and constant adaptation.
In his research, Céleste Thouin sees it as the need to question and confront his practice. Working with photos, videos, stories, archival writings, and traditional practices compels us to question what continuity to hold on to in the face of what is not us, what is no longer us, and it is that we aspire to be. In this context, fidelity is therefore taken as a critical position to counter the risks of appropriation and liberal and reactionary recuperation.
The exhibition is based on Occitan poems and songs. Objects like sentences made out of rust, red, brown, and ecru words. Through the creation of artisanal objects, Céleste Thouin traces the footsteps of a poetry that is somewhat dead, somewhat buried. His research at Casino dIsplay is an exercise in attentiveness. First to the materials, then to their gradual transformation, thus engaging in a multiplicity of working and manufacturing relationships. Spinning large woolen tablecloths from fleeces purchased in the Pyrenees, collectively carded in Cantal and then woven by Lily Weisgerber in Luxembourg. Carving oak, sawing boxwood, and gluing spruce with Théophile Peris. Mixing manure and casting bronze with Alassane Dermé. All this as a strange way of sketching out the quest for a political and poetic position.
*The title is inspired by a 1969 Occitan poem by Ives Roqueta. Rouergue, si
Photo © Théophile Peris