CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF MAURITIUS INDEPENDENCE

20: 57 Contemporary Art- 50 Years of Independence

For this special edition of the Salon de Mai, 50 local artists have been invited to explore the 50 years of our independence through art. Fifty postcolonial years, full of challenges; success on several fronts but also failures. The exhibition seeks to shed new light on our recent past as a nation in the making, questioning the constant political, social, cultural, economic and environmental mutations that have perpetually generated new narratives since independence.

A big thanks to the 50 artists who have invested their precious time and creative energy in this project; Many of them had to deviate from their usual way of functioning as artists, especially those who are accustomed to dealing with themes of their personal choice, found it particularly demanding since each artist had to create a piece, focusing on a specific year assigned to them by drawing lots. Out of his comfort zone, the artist had to revisit this specific year, do extensive research, identify events / issues that have marked our collective memory, draw inspiration and invoke the essence of what had characterized this particular year, in his/her creation. Although there were some uncertainties in the beginning, they all took up the challenge and masterfully translated their inspirations, their emotions, their concepts and their ideas into a spectrum of renderings in diverse media such as painting, sculpture, print, photography, sound, video and installation.

Knowing that the works will certainly connect with the personal lives of our audience, which is the general public from a wide variety of backgrounds. The exhibition has been specially designed with a didactic approach where every effort has been made to ensure that the works communicate fully to the viewers. Arranged in reverse chronological order, the whole exhibition acts as a time-tunnel where the viewer is led to experience a regression of time through successive works, ending with the year of our independence,1968, the beginning of the construction of our nation.

50 years of independence seen through the lens of 50 artists, triggers new questions, seeks new meanings, offers new understandings and opens up new perspectives that, in one way or another, will help shape the future of our country, the Mauritian nation