Exhibition from March 6 to April 19, 2025
The gallery Les filles du calvaire is delighted to host the first solo exhibition by Karine Rougier. Titled Jardin des souffles (Garden of Breaths), the exhibition will showcase a rich variety of works, including tempera paintings on resin (fragments of shipwrecks found in the Mediterranean Sea), drawings on handmade paper in various scales, a wall intervention, a bronze sculpture, and several celluloid films. Inspired by the beauty of the earth, vegetation, her underwater explorations, and the poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad, Etel Adnan, as well as the ecstatic chants of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Karine Rougier’s practice delves into the connections between humanity, nature, and spirituality, seeking both to heal and to celebrate the world.
Confronted with a world in decline, Karine Rougier offers a dreamlike and hopeful vision. Her work reveals the forces that unite us to mend our world. With bold determination and an embrace of freedom, the artist invites us to contemplate a universe where life in all its forms is honored. Her paintings and drawings, rich in narrative and symbolic intensity, intertwine humans, animals, minerals, and plants in an embrace, bearing witness to a nature reimagined through the artist’s unique lexicon in a harmonious dialogue. These interwoven forms transform into alchemical vines, embodying a search where bonds of friendship and love are intricately woven.
The exhibition revolves around several recurring motifs, including the monumental cordon de têtes (a "cord of heads"), a bronze sculpture inspired by the necklace of the Indian goddess Kali, where each head symbolizes a demon she has slain. In Rougier's reinterpretation, this symbol becomes a tribute to ancestors, significant encounters, and an unquenchable desire to live in harmony. The stelae of faces and menhir-like statues, imbued with life and evocative of collective memory, reinforce this vision of a universe where elements carry meaning and continuity.
Rougier paints vibrant scenes brimming with life, where beings are swept by a wind of urgent renewal. These fragmented forms sketch a world of desire driven by an irresistible vital force. Her confident and free gesture breathes a magnetic energy into her works, inviting us to contemplate a universe where life is celebrated in all its diversity.
Born in Malta in 1982, Karine Rougier currently lives and works in Marseille. She studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Geneva and the École Supérieure d’Art in Aix-en-Provence. She represented Malta at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and was awarded the Drawing Now Prize in 2022.
