Krishna Luchoomun and L'Express
An article in L'Express featuring Krishna Luchoomun


pARTage: international sharing in the field of contemporary art. If there is one image of the artist that particularly deeply-rooted, it is that of the solitary individual “shut away” in his studio, devoting everything to his creation. This is a very incomplete image, which does not take into account the desire, and even the need, which some feel to go and meet others, in order to experience exchanges that nourish the individual and his work. This is what pARTage hopes to encourage. PARTage is a local association set up as a result of an initiative by Krishna Luchoomun, through the working studio that currently exists at Flic en Flac. Here, twenty-eight artists, seventeen of them foreign, spend two weeks exchanging experiences, which the public are also invited to come and share for a day. There are 28 of them in all and they are not only from Mauritius, Rodrigues, and other countries in the Indian Ocean region, but also from Europe, Asia and Australia. They share a common passion for contemporary art, which they practise through different means of expression, from painting to video, sculpture, engraving, installations and performance. At the instigation of pARTage, all these artists, male and female, with their diverse ages, backgrounds, experiences and sensibilities, have been brought together at the Ministry of Arts and Culture’s outdoor complex at Flic en Flac, from 1 July until 15 July. “It’s a dream come true”, exclaims Krishna Luchoomun, president of the association. "This type of encounter may be quite common in other countries, but we have had few opportunities to organise them here. Whereas we actually have a great need to be in contact with what is being done elsewhere, beneath different skies", stresses the sculptor. What’s more, it was during a residency in Holland that he made contact with the Triangle Arts Trust, which assists in the setting up of this type of studio across the world. With the support of other international authorities like the Ford Foundation and the Kuona Trust, and then from a certain number of local businesses, this residency project took shape. And so seventeen foreign artists have come to join eleven local artists. For a fortnight, they are staying with Krishna Luchoomun at Flic en Flac, spending their days working on their creations at the local outdoor complex, and each evening attending presentations given by all the participants about the progress of their own work and the state of contemporary creation in their own countries. But how, in practical terms, do they live with this constant communal experiment? "You sense that an immense energy is passing through, and at the beginning you don’t know how to channel it. You have to get your bearings. Then, gradually, things fall into place. It really gives you a special energy for work", explains Nirmal Hurry. "Everyone knows more or less from the start where they are going. They don’t begin their work under the influence of what the artist next to them is doing. But a very fulfilling verbal exchange takes place, and techniques are exchanged too", says Françoise Hardy. "For example, when I saw Solange Rousset working with wax next to me, I said to myself: hey, why don’t I try to use some in creating my picture”, she explains. A little further on, Simon Back, a painter from Zimbabwe, is working on his canvases in a little separate room. "There is a sort of constant toing and froing between fulfilling moments spent with the others, and then the time spent on one’s own creation. Personally, this studio has just enabled me – through the work of Lindsay Seers and Anna Lucas – to discover video, which I admit “frightened” me a bit before, but which I now find fascinating". Indeed, in the next room we find Anna Lucas, a British artist, who is in the midst of editing. From her strolls around Flic en Flac and beyond during the previous days, she has brought back photos and video images, which she is trying to organise. "I’ve been struck by the profusion of buildings, all this concrete in very eclectic styles and colours, and it is possible that I shall work on something relating to that", she says. "Generally I work with objects in context, on questions that deal with a questioning of identity and the way in which it is constructed. It just goes to show that this type of experiment is meaningful for me”, confides Ali Mroivili, who is devoting himself to installations at the moment. Originally from the Comoros but based for the last few years in Amsterdam, he also sees this sharing as an opportunity to push forward an initiative aimed at developing artistic exchanges within our region. Thus he talks about proposals for the creation of a large international school for the Indian Ocean. Whereas Krishna Luchoomun would like this experiment to help lead towards the creation of an Indian Ocean Biennale of Contemporary Art. For the moment in any case, local people are invited to a unique meeting this Sunday: from 10am until 5pm, they will have the chance to see these artists at work and discuss with them, in other words to share a little of an extremely rich international experience. Not to be missed, before the exhibition of the works created by these artists during their stay, from 15 to 25 July at the MGI.