“Times of Grace”, in the intimacy of Jeremy Demester's work

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The encounter between artist Jeremy Demester and the Fondation Zinsou took place in 2015, the year in which this artist of Gypsy origins became acquainted with Vodoun through the exhibition catalog of Jean-Dominique Burton, whose work “Vodounons/Vodouns” we had produced. “I recognized the similarities in the temples, convents and altars. It was visual, but also instinctive - there was a direct link with gypsy rituals and divination”, he told us. He arrived in Benin for his residency with the desire to explore these cultural and aesthetic links.

The artist, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, with a deep knowledge of Art History and academic painting techniques, was furiously curious to break away from them and get back to basics. He turned to painting with natural pigments and oils, and decided to use local materials, notably percale canvas. 

 

He also allowed himself to compose his paintings in a different way from the solitary position of an artist in front of his work, deciding to work in chorus with the public, and more particularly with the children of the Petits Pinceaux workshops, inspired at the time by Pina Bausch and Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. He explained that “Greek tragedy was performed with the audience's chorus. At the time, during theatrical performances, the audience was part of the play and interacted [...] This inspired me to create a work along these lines. I invited children to dance with canvases. I let the children dance to their heart's content. [...] And they immediately understood what abstraction was [...] It was a moment of joy. And then, at a certain point, I decided to act as conductor, deciding what direction the canvas would take. I'd say to them: “Raise the canvas, lower it, turn it, clap your hands underneath it” and so on. [The basic idea was rhythm, as well as the human vector. I couldn't really choose what the painting would look like. But I was inspired by Cy Twombly and Polke, for example. Some people are reassuring in that sense, so I didn't take too many risks. 

He then created the work currently on display at the Musée de Ouidah: Original Zeke. 

He came back a second time and created a garden of paintings, leaving nature to finish his paintings, that was Azilos Magdalena.

By this time, artist Jeremy Demester had become attached to Benin, and was settling in.

 

In 2020, we decided to present his first solo show at the Musée de Ouidah, giving him carte blanche. He created the works for “Gros-Câlin”. 

During the preparations and interviews, we discovered Jeremy Demester's inexhaustible intellectual curiosity. Drawing constantly on the great writers, masters of painting, history, mythology, philosophy and religion, he creates connections between eras, thoughts and geographies, enriching his work with a universal heritage that he makes his own. Every detail of his designs was linked to infinite inspirations and fascinating references. Nietzsche taught him to stand back and open up to others, Giordano Bruno and Fernando Pessoa inspired him to think imaginatively, Victor Hugo inspired the architecture of the paintings he would create for the exhibition, Cynthia Fleury helped him understand the societal disease of resentment and the remedy of creation. He explained his respect for the work of artists who came before him, such as Pablo Picasso, Le Douanier Rousseau, Fernand Léger, Walter Di Maria, Michael Heizer, Cy Twombly, David Hockney, Philomé Obin, or even cinema... 

 

We discovered the humility of an artist who convinces us every day that he is already one of the greats.

 

He revealed himself to us, and we were suddenly confronted with a being who was not only nourished by academic theories and philosophical principles, but whose primary objective was the gift of self. He created with the intention of repairing the other, “healing and uniting”. These paintings were a gift from him to the public, after having gone through particularly intense inner phases, to which he had given names: the temple, the monstra, the astra. 

 

We discovered an artist who had succeeded in integrating himself into a Vodoun culture that now seemed to be his own, who consulted the Fâ to create, and used the figure of the sacred Ouidah python to guide his brush. He paid as much respect to this cult as he did to the great masters of literature and art.

 

Today, the Fondation Zinsou is unveiling its “Times of Grace” exhibition at the Lab in Cotonou. It's a delicate, suspended moment, like a diary of Jeremy Demester's reflections on creation, an immersion in his technical and pictorial research. The artist surprises viewers, who know him from his last two exhibitions, by breaking with the codes he has previously established.

Drawing, which he said he had turned away from at the time, because of his attraction to the urgency of grand gestures and the energy offered by painting, is now part of his work. 

Figuration, from which he had firmly detached himself, has now become a way of paying homage to the Beauty and balance of the forms created in Art. 

In his 2020 interview, for example, he spoke of the importance of choosing the subject of a portrait: “Who deserves to be painted? Why paint him? What's he going to say? In “Times of Grace”, it is the tutelary figure of Romain Gary who takes shape in his work. After borrowing the title of his work for the Ouidah exhibition, “Gros-Câlin”, Jeremy Demester once again pays homage to him, drawing the contours of the face of this writer who, according to Delphine Horvilleur, manages to escape the shackles of identity, making him a symbol of the truly free man. 

 

He also explores the works of major artists such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Edmond Cross, appropriating their gestures with his own energy and singular colors.

The artist also introduces us to another type of creative inspiration: archival images of Dahomey, which he discovered in the Zinsou Collection. He chooses a photograph and draws out its essence and energy, in this case that of a Vodoun fetishist. 

 

In Ouidah, we discover that he acts not just as an artist but as a master, devoting himself to training two young Beninese painters from a Vodoun convent. He advises, directs, coaches and inspires Bruno and Brice Zountounnou. Their paintings are now on show at the Musée de Ouidah.

 

Sophie Douay