Hakanto Contemporary, Antananarivo, Madagascar
23 Nov 2024 - 16 Feb 2025
Hakanto Contemporary announces FOUR SEASONS, Benjamin Loyauté’s first exhibition in Madagascar. Known for his poetic and committed approach, Loyauté’s works will highlight the relationships between the material and immaterial, the visible and invisible, local culture, and environmental issues.
Invited by Ndao Hanavao and Hakanto Contemporary, he was given a carte blanche to imagine and design this exhibition, FOUR SEASONS, which is both a deep immersion into his artistic universe, enriched by his latest creative experiences in Madagascar, and a recontextualization of the fruits of his years of collaboration with the Ndao Hanavao project.
For his first presentation in Madagascar, Benjamin Loyauté’s evocation of the four seasons resonates with the multiple realities of an agricultural territory and a community for whom circumstances and weather phenomena shape everyday life, the present, and the future.
Curated by Rina Ralay-Ranaivo, with scientific guidance from Bako Rasoarifetra, the FOUR SEASONS exhibition offers an aesthetic exploration of climate change effects on Madagascar, especially on its farming communities and landscapes. Through videos, installations, and sculptures, Benjamin Loyauté explores the role of art as a balancing force in a world in transition. He revisits the four seasons in harmony with Malagasy realities, creating a dialogue between tradition and modernity, between nature and technology.
Benjamin Loyauté is known for his multidisciplinary works that question perception and cultural heritage. With FOUR SEASONS, he highlights Malagasy ancestral practices, especially around the pearl—a symbolic object he incorporates into his artistic reflection. In collaboration with Ndao Hanavao youth, Benjamin Loyauté created Voa ary, a recycled plastic bead consecrated during a traditional ritual.