<B>The rich fawn-coloured hours</B>

As you cross the threshold of the ?Boutique des deux ancres? at Caudan, where the Italian-born artist is exhibiting his come-back show of two-dimensional works, you encounter exceptional creativity.

A strange yet captivating humanity has invaded the premises of the former Boutique des deux ancres at Caudan Waterfront. This crowd -more of unreal shadows than clear-cut silhouettes, suggesting mostly women?s presence-has magnetism and an inner life that grips the attention. As the visitor passes the threshold and leaves ?normal life? behind, he/she is greeted by the man who has transformed this place. But who is Giancarlo Teker ?

First an artist of great stature, whom many Mauritians will discover throughout this month at his exhibition,?L?Heure fauve? (The fawn-coloured hour). Someone they already appreciate each time they pass the Caudan fountain, one of his creations. He is back on the scene after a five-year absence.

Giancarlo enjoys a career and experience that speak not only of the creative vitality and richness of a whole epoch (the 70s and 80s in Italy) but also of the versatility of a questioning, genuinely artistic temperament. Spirited and lively, his youthful appearance does not hint at his more than 35 years of painting, mask creation and costume design (for opera and theatre)?

From the start, the artist had a natural gift for painting. So much so that, when he took part in the entrance examination at the Paris Beaux-Arts school in the late 60s, the examiners simply felt he would not have much more to learn in their classes, and recommended him to try sculpture.... That was a time of Bohemian living, together with encounters that changed his destiny.

First came the surprise of Genet?s drama Our lady of the flowers. ?I thought I would be bored by it but it was like a revelation.? Giancarlo never tried to isolate himself in his ivory tower: ?I do not have the radicalism of some artists who cut a gap in the canvas to renew the idea of perspective, without adding anything else to the work, and sell it at one million $ for each gap. There is some compromise in what I do.? This show his concern for honesty.

Giancarlo was also at one time in a group hostile to Pablo Picasso?s supremacy over the artistic mainstream. ?Even Les Demoiselles d?Avignon, which we know now owes so much to Braque and has been overvalued, was under suspicion. Picasso did eliminate his rivals too.?

But this resentment could not last. A complete change came when he had the shock of being confronted by Guernica, Picasso?s masterpiece born from the tragedy of a village completely crushed by the German aviation during the Spanish civil war. As from then, Picasso would become a constant source of inspiration.

Like his master Carlo created a series of masks of his own, deeply influenced by futurism, some designed for the Venice Carnival. In this dream town for the Arts (think of the Biennale to which Teker contributed), he also showed his versatility by doing all the costumes and sets for the world première of Igor Stravinsky?s ballet Le Chant du rossignol at the prestigious La Fenice theatre, using a generous palette of colours (more than 150!) and an imaginative design (inspired by futurism) - an event in itself. Already distinguished through a series of exhibitions in various galleries in Italy and France, Giancarlo also did much research on mask-making in Mauritius. This was after he came here with his Mauritian wife some 15 years ago. He exhibited this work at the Méridien hotel in 1989.

Does he not feel confined in our small island? Not really. ?What counts is to have a studio. I don?t even paint to sell my works.? Anyway, amateurs and everybody with an enquiring mind should not miss this exhibition, which marks a come-back for the artist after more than five years of silence. These new perspectives that may broaden our horizons are worth some millions on the stock exchange of artistic values?