EXHIBITION

Salle Jean Despas, Place des Lices du 11 au 15 octobre 2023

ESPRITS DE LA TERRE

Contemporary Australian Aboriginal paintings, sculptures and ceramics presented by Céline Emery-Demion (Red Dunes Gallery, Mougins) in her presence.

 

The contemporary Australian Indigenous art movement draws its inspiration from the Dreamtime, complex cosmogony of the first inhabitants of the Australian continent.
For 60,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Nations of Australia have transmitted, reactivated and updated mythical narratives from the time of the creation of all things through their dreams, songs and dances, rituals and initiation ceremonies, as well as in rock art, sand drawings and body paintings, all of which include sacred motifs that are still represented in contemporary artworks.
These ancestral motifs take the form of lines, circles and dots, and correspond to a cartographic language linked to the lands where the creative ancestors travelled or stopped and to the actions they performed there.

Today, the artists continue to highlight the spiritual and mythical links they have with their lands, and constantly remind us of the interconnection between all things: women and men, the elements of the earth and the universe, animals and plants. Their artistic gesture perpetuates with energy, vitality and an astonishing modernity, the inherent memory of their sacred lands, the rightful lands of the First Nations of Australia.

 

Céline Emery-Demion, a French-Australian collector and gallery owner, created Red Dunes Gallery in 2017 with the aim of promoting and sharing the richness of Australian Indigenous art and culture in France. Having grown up and lived for twenty years on this island-continent, Céline travels each year across the central Australian desert to visit art centres, to meet artists, and each trip is always a moving and enriching exchange. Céline exhibits regularly on the French Riviera and in her permanent gallery in the village of Mougins.

Red Dunes Gallery is a signatory to the Indigenous Art Code, a code of conduct that guarantees the transparency of the provenance of the artworks and attests to ethical and respectful practices towards the artists and their communities.