Jack Beng-Thi

Jack Beng-Thi is a multidisciplinary artist and poet from the French island of La Réunion, located in the Indian Ocean, around 800 kilometres southeast of Madagascar.

Journeys and the ongoing construction of a contemporary map of memory are realities and dynamics that are inseparable from his work. His particular map begins by tracing his family, his ancestors, and his Indian, Chinese-Vietnamese, African and European grandparents, forming an eloquent example of the melting pot of cultures found on the volcanic island of his birth.

His own journey starts in the family environment and proceeds through literature, which, starting in his youth, becomes a vital and constant necessity. Travelling as free as a bird, submerging himself in places and committing to the realities of other people, sharing and building creative environments together: these are his horizons. It is not by chance that a large bird-cabin is installed in the CAAM centre, as a tribute to birds and to freedom. His artistic work includes sculpture and installations as well as photography, video and performance, in parallel with his literary creation.

In this exhibition, we can participate in these languages and explore lands that speak to us of memory and the present, of the contradictions in human beings, in our values and our most irrational and predatory facets.

Likewise, if last year we enjoyed his works inspired by Africa in the rooms of Casa África, we now find ourselves before a tribute to his other ancestors, with sections dedicated to both China and India. His interventions in public spaces gain more importance in the context of his work, as through them he honours their people, their history and its guides. To visit this exhibition is to share a journey that cannot fail to enrich, and to have this experience guided by an artist who is enormously committed to his time, who has made his life an act of embracing ethics and aesthetics, poetry, and criticism of reality. Through the honesty of Beng-Thi’s discourse, we can always hear the rumble of other cultures.

Orlando Britto Jinorio / Nilo Palenzuela Borges

IMAGE GALLERIES

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Opening