August 25 – 28, 2022
INÈS DI FOLCO JEMNI
Art-o-rama, Marseille
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As ‘sadness hand in hand with daydreaming’, Inès Di Folco Jemni’s paintings are imbued with a lascivious melancholy, with an awareness of passing time. Inspired by her trip to Cairo, the artist invokes the practice of  ‘Fayoum portraits’ and delivers nine paintings like icons, gazing towards the beyond.

On black-coated walls, the display is an invitation to the languor of the evening, a tipping point where the real meets the spiritual. Suspended in the heart of space, Three Sisters and an Angel is an ode to the night. In a game of contrast between brilliance and darkness, vegetation and flowers proliferate, the ocher reddens, mothers enthrone and ancestors watch.

Around it, eight paintings pursue the idea of peregrinations as a contemplative dream. Colorful sparkles stand out against dark backgrounds while the artist plays with blur effects, experiments with pigments, materials and textures.

Inès has been constructing a long process of documentation and investigation, inspired by literature, her travels, and music. As images, her paintings address the themes of micro-history and archives, memory, cults, and ritual practices in the world.

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