DUMONTEIL Shanghai is delighted to present Golden Age, the solo exhibition of French sculptor Jean-Marie Fiori. Encompassing the last two decades of Fiori's practice, this exhibition is the most extensive and comprehensive retrospective of his work and a testimony to the 30-year collaboration between the artist and the gallery. The show features nearly 40 sculptures of different dimensions, including several latest functional creations, and a limited-edition artist rug collection in collaboration with Khawachen, a refined Tibetan craftsmanship brand.
Solemn and childlike, this uncanny combination characterises Fiori's distinctive personal style. Just as the artist likes to describe his work as 'L'enfance de l'art', these 'beasts', in their immobile serenity, rekindle a child's wonder in each viewer, like being in another world—playful, animated, yet profound and elegant. The journey begins with the 'Garden' series, continues with the 'Wonderland' of functional sculptures, and ends with the "Beast Kingdom" of animal statues in the small hall.
Drawing upon the 'Golden Age', the exhibition traces the complexities of ancient civilisations behind Fiori's work. In ancient Greek poet Hesiod's Works and Days, Golden age was once a time when men and God lived together, symbolising the primordial peace and harmony; the 'golden age' of society marks a period of high intellectual output in art, science, literature and philosophy. The ancient civilisations that wrote their history in mythology were a combination of both.
Fiori has always been able to find those 'wonders of the world' and extract new forms from them: 'Day Dreaming' from the ancient Rome Triclinium dining room, the 'Hathor' lamp based on the ancient Egyptian goddess, the 'Great Sumer' Cabinet and the 'Sargon' Buffet inspired by Sumerian reliefs, the 'Doge' table based on the ancient Persian Parthian winged lion, the 'Great Gardener' inspired by the ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessels, and the 'Rhyton' Lamp that witnessed the ancient Silk Road... This pursuit of the sacred has been incorporated into his stylistic vocabulary, thus becoming his work's inner strength.
Yet the viewer does not need to know anything about these civilisations to 'communicate' with these works. All the beauty and the very meaning of Jean-Marie Fiori's work is held in his simple wish to touch our hearts and sensitivities most straightforwardly, comprehensible to everyone. Just as we still admire artefacts from archaeological excavations thousands of years later, Fiori seeks to leave his mark on the universal and the timeless, an impact that resists death.
From his early career has a sculptor, Fiori identified animals as the main element of his work. On the one hand, the depiction of animals runs through the history of human civilisation and has a universality that transcends time's geographical and cultural boundaries. The diversity of animals also symbolises the variety of life: the strong, the weak, the wild, and the domesticated, etc. On the other hand, the distinction of animals' physical features has also become a treasure trove to develop Fiori's sculptural vocabulary.
In recent years, Fiori has increasingly concerned himself with the 'function' part of his bronze sculptures, to embellish every day, to fill in with wonder if possible. Each work remains above all a sculpture, while the function is more like another entry point for the artist's increasingly mature stylistic language. Just as the work of Les Lalannes has never been properly classified, these functional sculptures question whether one can indeed draw a clear line between 'art' and 'design', and their creators are simply fulfilling their role as artists: overturning everything, and inventing everything.
Fiori shares the same obsession with everlasting—solidity, durability, quality, and aesthetics—regarding materials choices and production qualities. From alabaster to bronze, he wishes to bring his sculptures brilliant colours. Lacquering the bronze was a bold and extravagant idea. There were always voices telling him, 'You can achieve the same effect with resin'. However, using bronze was important to Fiori because even when covered with lacquer, resin barely lasted decades, while bronze dozens of centuries.
Fiori's standards are almost unrealistic: preciousness, sophistication, rarity and, as far as possible, a desire for perfection. All his bronze and lacquered bronze sculptures come from Deroyaume, one of the best foundries in France. When the artist decided to create a new collection of rugs, the Tibetan brand Khawachen has made his expectation of 'passing down the generations' possible with its unique quality of highland wool and traditional Tibetan craftsmanship.
Over the past 30 years, Fiori's talent and dedication have earned him many admirations and recognitions, and his work has been included in important private collections around the world. However, when you look at his 'beasts' and receive their 'gazes', you will realise that the 'golden age' of Fiori's work has just begun.
Press release courtesy Dumonteil Contemporary.
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