“Many people want an art that could be called Mauritian. But art is everywhere, within the reach of a right-click.” Krishna Luchoomun, the president of pARTage, has views that are not of the old school. And so do the dozen artists that are contributing to the pARTage workshop at Flic-en-Flac from 6th to 14th of August. This workshop enables artists to free their creative flow together in the framework of a well-established programme.

As Linda Abraham, a participant, comments: “Art is a way to wisdom. It brings change without violence.” So why not show this practice to the people? On Saturday, Mauritians are invited to witness the ongoing creative process at Flic-en-Flac Youth Centre. The final works will be displayed at the Alliance Française, Bell Village, from August 26 to September 8.

After individual needs in terms of space and materials were settled, the workshop participants started to work on paintings or painted installations. “Actually, everybody in artistic creation – audiovisual, dance, writing – could join”, the president points out. “Each evening, a presentation is organized with participants or distinguished guests, like Hans Ramduth, arts historian, last Saturday.”

Yet, as Ravi Jetshan, another participant, says, “art is something easier to practice than to explain”. So much of the workshop deals with technical or practical matters. Some, like Agilen Poinen or Jean-Yves l’Onflé, are mainly sculptors and are testing other fields. “It is also rewarding to imagine and complete a work in a short time, when one is used to doing it in a month.”

“There is still much reflection,” says Alix Lejuge, better known as a painter, who is working on a tri-dimensional piece on women’s solidarity. Jaya Bucktowar will use a PC in her installation, while Dino Vishal, is trying to open his art of engraving to that of the paintbrush, putting it in perspective with political ideology in a work where inscriptions “Vot pou lart” are in filigree.

The multi-disciplinary quality of pARTage can also be illustrated by Ravi Jetshan, better known for imaginative jewellery (Ravior) than for painting and artistic installations. “This workshop gives me the opportunity to come back to painting. But also to devote myself to experiments on colours through the ignition of sheets of metal.” Fire frees unusually intense rusty yellow and purple tones on the metal sheet.

This can inspire others, like Ouma Appadu, whose technique is based on the use of acrylic: “I want to give a certain consistency, concentrating on texture. I try to integrate into my own language some colours created by Jetshan. What you see is not final, it can still change”. As with most of the artists involved, who are no newcomers, this reflection is not the expression of caprice. Paintings can alter in the process, obeying an inner necessity.

Reconstruction

Because “the artist exerts control over his work”. And the means can be drastic. Rishi Seeruttun has chosen his old pants like an old skin fixed on canvas, covered with white! Then they are partially burnt, to reveal new textures. Some participants even seem to have everything already planned in their minds, like Malini Callimootoo, patiently working on her diptyque.

Creation is always linked to destruction. Where Agilen Poinen finds an organic logic in superposing roots in a circular pattern, made of little squary patches, that could represent the wheel of life, K1000 (Kamil Acbar) stages the depletion of Mauritian beaches. “It is a kind of reconstruction. It is not necessary to give a title to it”, he adds, as another “acte de résistance.”

Creation can also mean communication, as shown by the strings that link parts of the complex installation in preparation by Reshma Luchoomun, significantly named “opposites attract”.

A full catalogue of the creations favoured by pARTage is envisaged. The outcome of the workshop will surely go well beyond the exhibition itself.