Adrénaline
From 2nd to 28th May 2024
Solo show – Kenza Merouchi
Galerie Ars Longa
The Ars Longa Gallery is delighted to welcome Kenza Merouchi for her Solo Show Adrénaline in honor of the 16th edition of the Festival Printemps de l’Art Contemporain, organized by the PAC network from May 2 to 19. The exhibition is intended as the culmination of work begun during the Décollage project at the Polaris art center in Istres in 2023, presenting the beginnings of the series of drawings and volumes entitled Thrill Rides.
In this new exhibition, the artist explores the sensation of take-off as a metaphor for the artistic experience. Her intention is to evoke the impetus and pleasure of experiencing art, and drawing in particular, for her: “To look at a work of art is to experience, by rebound, this sensation. She blends drawing with the graphic codes of movement representation borrowed from comics and animation. Her drawings are a way for her to step out of the frame, choosing to extract the radicality of the architectural forms that make up these attractions. From roller coaster pillars to looping rails, Kenza Merouchi’s drawings conjure up playful forms that sustain an impulse. After working on the iconography of theme park construction simulation video games, her work now incorporates the reality. Indeed, Kenza Merouchi took advantage of the fairground installation in Aix-en-Provence to talk to them and document the way in which the attractions are erected towards the sky. She also took a seat in these attractions and chose to draw the landscape in motion, to create images offering a change of perspective. Her interest lies in seeing the forms from a distance, to consider them as a whole, but also in entering them to see the rest of the world upside down, at full speed, or peacefully, with its head in the clouds.