In Port Louis, in the heart of the historic centre, a building made of old carved stone has been restored to the delight of heritage lovers. Here, in the House of Digital Art, contemporary art is breathing new life into this historic site with its walls weathered by the years.
Cette rencontre entre l’Histoire et le présent vaut déjà le détour, mais l’exposition qui se découvre en déambulant dans un savant agencement de labyrinthes animés de sons et de couleurs, prend ici une dimension particulière.
On y fait un voyage dans le temps et l’espace.
Le temps d’abord, géologique, qui peut se découvrir par la narration de textes en anglais ou en créole (les traductions en français sont accessibles via des QR Code).
L’espace, avec des voyages interstellaires qui vous ramènent, en quelques éclairs, sur cette partie du monde et dont le visiteur se prend au jeu de la façonner de ses mains.
Le tout en totale interactivité puisque le spectateur se fait acteur en utilisant ses doigts ou encore son smartphone ou sa tablette pour scanner et participer. Un temps il devient artiste de cette immense œuvre digitale.
An experience of ubiquity that transports you to Lemuria.
Finally, on the fringes of time and space, you can experience parhelion, an optical phenomenon resulting from a spot of light caused by the refraction of the sun’s rays.
Here, in the shelter of a tin hut designed by Reunionese artist Stéphanie Brossard, the sunlight of New Delhi (a land shared by many Mauritians) is recreated live, as if you were there, in the Indian capital. It’s an experience of ubiquity that transports you to that mythical land, Lemuria, because it has to be said that the instigator of this exhibition, Astrid Dalais, drew her inspiration from the great Malcom De Chazal.
The multi-talented Mauritian artist, who died in 1981, wrote Petrusmok, a surrealist novel in which he describes his beloved Mauritius as the summit of a partly sunken Indian Ocean Atlantis. A timeless territory, between noon and midnight, as another great Mauritian artist, Edouard Maunick, would have said, brought to life by the augmented reality of this exhibition.
Stay tuned for our next edition of magazine.
Jacques Rombi
Laves du Temps par Kid Kreol & Bougie crédit photo Yannick Mootoosamy
The exhibition will close on 16 March to prepare for the next season, entitled “All Islands are Trees”, which opens on 5 April.
To be seen at 6, rue Edith Cavell, Port-Louis,
opening hours :
– Tuesday to Thursday, 10:30 am to 5:30 pm
– Friday and Saturday from 10:30 to 23:00
