The Museum of Fine Arts in Caen welcomes “Comme un journal”, a unique work by Stéphane Quoniam
The Caen painter Stéphane Quoniam produced a watercolor journal on cadastral register sheets from 2012 to 2020. “Comme un journal” is a unique work that reflects the moods of an artist committed to his time
298 leaves are exhibited in the prints room of the Museum of Fine Arts in Caen. These watercolors, toutputs of the same format, were made on the pages of an old cadastral register unearthed in a secondhand market. We can guess some handwritten writings, dates, a life and a memory of yesteryear with its full and thin lines in black ink.
It is a kind of challenge that Stéphane Quoniam launched himself with this work entitled “Comme un journal”
“ Produced between 2012 and 2020, this work reflects the mood of the artist at a time T answering the question: what inspires me today? “explains Emmanuelle Delapierre, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Caen
With Stéphane Quoniam, this innocuous question takes on another dimension.
“Stéphane Quoniam is an artist in his time. He creates his watercolors over the days, encounters, information from the world ” explains Emmanuelle Delapierre. “Time passes with its joys, its torments, its positions. It also refers us to the political notion of personal involvement in our daily lives. Every day we make choices: take the car or move on foot, take a shower or bath … We are responsible for our choices, he tells us “
duration of the video: 01min 42
The exhibition “Comme un Journal” by Stéphane Quoniam at the Caen MBA
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© France 3 Normandy
Former professor of geography at the University of Caen, designer, engraver, photographer and frequent traveler, Stéphane Quoniam is someone involved in the world in which he lives.
“No innocence” specifies Emmanuelle Delapierre“When, for example, he makes a watercolor on the destruction of Palmyra, the massacre of Bataclan, the cemetery of spectacles assembled by the Nazis. They say the monstrosity of men and their constant recourse to amnesia. The artist strives to ward off oblivion. Since the cadastres exist, since it is necessary to record, both the days and the title deeds, then signified the resurgent wars, the lies announced, the ravaged nature, the trapped consciences. “
“Comme un journal” by Stéphane Quoniam is to be discovered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caen until February 20