05 Dec 2013
The new publication by Malala Andrialavidrazana brings the sensuality of daily life to light.
Contributors: Joël Andrianomearisoa, Julie Crenn, Nathalie Gonthier, Peter McKenzie, Didier Schaub
The Indian Ocean often evokes fantasized visions of exotic dreams. Far from postcards clichés, Malala Andrialavidrazana brings us discreetly into private spheres in Antananarivo, Mumbai, Durban and Reunion Island, and presents the viewer with day-to-day atmospheres, still-lives and fragmented portraits with elegance and subtlety. She is driven by the diversity of those communities and how identities are expressed in a world of mass communication and where uniformity leaves its mark on people. Playing with boundaries in general and more particularly with the passages existing between anthropology, contemporary art and architecture, she explores the authenti- city and intimacy of the middle classes in the urban areas on the Indian Ocean.
French artist of Malagasy origin, Malala Andrialavidrazana (b. 1971) lives in Paris since 1983. Her work has been exhibited ex- tensively in various contemporary art institutions and events in Europe and Africa. She was awarded the 2004 Prize of the HSBC Foundation for Photography. In 2012, she received the support of the French Institute and the National Art Council of South Africa through the France – South Africa Seasons program to develop her project.
»The interiors of these people’s homes reveal much about their lives. The state of the walls and the interior design, but above all else the family photographs, the religious pictures, the trinkets, the furnishings or lack of furnishings, the television and audio equip- ment, the bedding, the everyday objects that testify to these hu- man stories and unveil the intimate side of these people. Yet ma- ke no mistake, these are definitely portraits…«
-Didier Schaub
»‘Echoes’ illuminates the African tradition of call and response. It’s as if this repetition is actually the voices of the inner and outer self in conversation. By reflecting and meditating these quiet mo- ments constituent to the possibility of identity and its dynamics, the photographer inadvertently gathers up the visual fragments of tumultuous pasts, collating these in a contemporary medita- tion informing this inner conversation.«
-Peter McKenzie
