PARIS
SEPTEMBER 14 - NOVEMBER 23, 2022
Fondation H, a private Malagasy contemporary art foundation, have invited artist Temandrotato a three-month creation residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, where he has developed a body of work leading to the exhibition Barbie caillou presented at our Parisian space from September 14 to November 23, 2022.
Born in 1975 in Antananarivo (capital of Madagascar), Temandrota, whose real name is Randriahasandratra Razafimandimby, is inspired by nature and the ambivalence of a modern society seeped in traditions. First winner of the Prix Paritana in 2017, he plays both with recycled items symbolizing the consumer society, and natural elements such as sap, sisal, earth, as well as animal or plant-based pigments. His work was notably presented at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2018 during the exhibition Madagascar, Arts de la Grande Île [Arts of the Big Island].
Born to a family of hunters from southern Madagascar, Temandrota suffered kéré (a drought-caused famine in the south of the island), an age-old tragedy that became one of the driving forces in his creative process. His art is strongly imbued with his tandroy identity (from the Androy region, the arid south of Madagascar), and as such delves into the traditional world, and its links to land and orality.
For his exhibition Barbie caillou, the artist researches oral traditions from his home village and Antananarivo, focusing on a popular game in Madagascar: tantara vato, also called Barbie caillou. Based on oral dialogues between the imaginary and social realities, the game is played by young girls, who set up conversation between pebbles impersonating home inhabitants. As the aim of tantara vato is to make your friends laugh and dream, Temandrota decided to play it as a means to express one of his biggest obsessions: the rain wish.
He expresses it with an installation set up on both levels of Fondation H - Paris, which gathers natural objects, art on newsprint, sculptures inspired by the aloalo tradition (funeral totems adorning Mahafaly tombs), upcycled elements, as well as braided work made in collaboration with fishermen from Fort Dauphin (a town in the south-east of the island).