USUYUKI CHANTIER
The confrontation between order and disorder is an undeniably important element in the artistic language of the Venezuelan artist, Manuel Mérida. The outdoor installation created especially for the Espace Monte Cristo is part of the Usuyuki series, started by the artist in 1988, recognizable by this camouflage of red and white stripes. The term “Chantier”, used by the artist for this work, underlines this dichotomy between order and disorder. Seemingly messy, the construction site remains a place where organization is essential for the successful completion of the work. In 2013, Manuel Mérida evoked this confrontation:
“The support and the installation confront different plastic tendencies, such as constructivism, the informal, the abstract, playing between the static and the real movement. This same confrontation is composed of various materials – engine, wood, metals, fabrics, cardboard, plaster, ropes, etc. – expressed by organic forms, all in order and disorder, in a single mass, almost like a camouflage, almost monochrome, coherent of materials and colors. The mixture of materials like united trends offers a plastic, unprecedented situation and refuses the passive character of the stable, fixed, inert image. Fixed elements, improvisation, dimension, adaptation according to space are the components that lead me to energy and great freedom."
Ordre / Désorde (Usuyuki-Chantier) is the first outdoor installation by Manuel Mérida. Measuring 8 meters in height, it is also the artist’s largest work.
ORDRE / DÉSORDRE
On the occasion of this Carte Blanche, Manuel Mérida presents two monumental installations, one in the interior space and the other in the exterior space. In this room, Mérida continues his work on his Manuchrome installations, which he has already been able to create on several occasions:
“The idea of Manuchrome is simple. From large circles that enclose different colored materials, the work of Manuel Merida, appropriates the space, the wall. […] The real movement is essential, otherwise the works would be in a way non-existent. Movement is fundamental in the work of Manuel Merida in order to create situations of change such as exist in nature. This design also includes a colorful extension beyond the wall, onto the adjacent furniture and everything around it. Manuel Merida’s work generally extends to the spectators who dress in «Manuchrome» clothing, thus suggesting a limitless chromatic echo like a sponge that absorbs space, matter, colors and movements."
Within the Espace Monte Christo, Manuel Mérida creates a link, not chromatic, but formal, between the outdoor installation and the indoor one. Indeed, in the present case, the confrontation between order and disorder is the essential element of this Carte Blanche. Within the two installations, the apparent disorganization is opposed to the order of the monochrome circles of Mérida and to this regularity of the white and red stripes.
