Anne & Patrick Poirier transplant cultural memories at Art on Lake

Art on Lake in Budapest Photograph by Stefan van Drake (2011)

"We believe that ignorance or the destruction of cultural memory brings in its wake every sort of oblivion, falsehood and excess and that we must, with all the modest means at our disposal, oppose this generalized amnesia and destruction." Anne and Patrick Poirier 

A frightened golden horse rears out of the water, a huge arrow tip pierces the surface of City Park Lake in Budapest, a golden male figure faces the plush greenery of nearby shore as if to warn as a classical baroque female figure motions to him.

"Theatrical Production on Water" installation by Anne & Patrick Poirier

Anne (b. 1941) and Patrick Poirier´s (b. 1942) “Theatrical Production on the Water”, appears high drama unfolding beneath the tower of Vajdahunyad Castle in central Budapest.

The French art duo joined 24 other European sculptors in a unique presentation of a contemporary marine sculpture garden, Art on Lake.

Art on Lake opened 22 May and closes 4 September.

“The work evokes the fallibility and fragility of cultures and civilizations, and contrasts this with the aggression of our age, making a metaphor of time where the past and the future are melded together,” Art on Lake´s catalogue, which the Museum of Fine Arts Budapest released this month, stated.

Florence, Italy loaned the Poirier work to the Hungarian museum for this show.

The Porriers, married and working together for more than 40 years, own many art dimensions but one common mantra:

“We believe that memory and the knowledge of cultures is the basis of all understandings between people and between societies; that ignorance or the destruction of cultural memory brings in its wake every sort of oblivion, falsehood, and excess; that hate and violence between peoples, intolerance in all its terrible forms, all begin with ignorance and the voluntary destruction of memory;

“We believe, too, that in the contemporary world, the destruction of both cultural memory and nature has quickened; and that we must, with all the modest means at our disposal, oppose this generalized amnesia and destruction.”

Female and Male Figures, "Theatrical Production on Water" by Anne & Patrick Poirier

They work extensively with photography, drawing, installation and monumental public sculpture.

Their works are threaded with concepts of decay, ruins, archeology and disintegration.

“Fictitious archaeology is perhaps an apt phrase to indicate the character of their works,” according to earlier Art on Lake literature.

Highly traveled, the pair relies on photography as a starting point in much of their work:

“Photography was, and still is, one of our constant techniques. It allows us to fix the memory of a gaze one poses upon things, a gaze which intends to be objective and documentary, but which we transform - through coloring and other techniques - into totally subjective images.

“Thus we attempt to restore our own experience, our own subjective vision.”

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

ArtTraveler notes:

After living at the Hotel Queen Mary in Budapest (3.5 stars), I heartily recommend it: old on the outside, otherwise totally modern (23 rooms); 

The owner and staff are affable and speak English and German. Tel: 0036-1-413-3510; www.hotelqueenmary.hu; info@hotelqueenmary.hu.

Visit Andalusia for a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop. 

See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

"Spanish Life Stilled," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

You may reach me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 915 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.