April 2016, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, NYC

 

Hypogea was Radouan Zeghidour's first solo exhibition.

It received quite a bit of attention with articles on Artnet, Cool Hunting and The Creators Project.

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Press release:

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"What is essential is invisible to the eye,” Antoine de Saint Exupery’s famous utterance could be Radouan Zeghidour’s motto. The 27 year-old Parisian artist’s practice thus far has been characterized by the building and documenting of illicit installations in hidden locations, the routes to which are only disclosed after the works are removed.  Subway tunnels, catacombs and abandoned warehouses around Paris have served as his canvases - effectively denying access to any audience except the chosen few lucky enough to be a part of the process.

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These underground structures, whether rafts, castle-like skeletons, or tombs are only displayed after their life as recollections of the artist’s secrets – photographs capturing the sites, video works of the journey underground, paintings made with the debris or detritus from his locations, and boxes of relics.

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Oscillating between ideas of secrecy and the sacred, the Zeghidour’s first New York solo exhibition presented at Catinca Tabacaru Gallery and curated by Marie Salomé Peyronnel, focuses on the memory of Désenchantement (i.e. Disenchantment), a structure made of wood, wax and whool he installed and de-installed under the La Maison Rouge Museum in Paris in 2015. The name ‘Hypogea’ refers to underground crypts, temples and tombs… the one he explores to expend his imagination and find peace as much as his own constructions.

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This exhibition includes six works: a box of relics made from polished aluminum and containing photographs and artifacts found on location while building Désenchantement; two debris paintings memorialized in wax; a video documenting the journey to the secret site; a hand drawn access map daring visitors to embark on a memorial pilgrimage to the once was installation; and an impressive tombstone drawn with acid on aluminum marking the end of the process. The name of the show

 

‘Hypogea’ refers to underground crypts, temples and tombs… the one he explores to expend his imagination and find peace as much as his own constructions.

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