The Picci Fine Arts gallery brings the work of Daniel Hourdé to the public of AL

The gallery with more than 60 years of history in Mexican art Picci Fine Arts, which has distinguished itself by promoting projects inside and outside the country, will present the sculpture of Daniel Hourdé (Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 1947) The tree of a thousand voices at the 15th Havana Biennial, which begins tomorrow, and will inaugurate an exhibition of the artist in Mexico City on the 21st.

We are excited to bring the talent of Daniel Hourdé to Havana and Mexico City at such a significant moment for contemporary art.commented Pichi Aguilar, director of Picci Fine Arts. We believe that these events will not only bring Hourdé’s work closer to the Latin American public, but will also strengthen the cultural dialogue between Europe and Latin America..

The two exhibitions mark the artistic vision of Daniel Hourdé and the mission of Picci Fine Arts; From Havana to Mexico City, European contemporary art is intertwined with the Latin American cultural scene.

Aguilar indicated that the gallery allows you to learn about contemporary and modern art from around the world, in addition to the fact that Mexico has always been a protagonist in world art. We believe it will continue to be, because creativity in the country is infinite and it is a universal language..

In the main square of Old Havana it will be installed The tree of a thousand voicesa monumental 15-meter steel structure with pages from more than a thousand books by authors from around the world, by Hourdé, whose creative journey encompasses various forms of expression.

Its origin in Mexico

In an interview with translation support from Almudena Hourdé, Daniel shared that the idea for this piece arose two years ago in Mexico, when he set up an exhibition at the Chancery Museum and toured the Chapultepec Forest, where he observed the movement of the leaves. when he fell and the idea came to him of creating a tree whose leaves were books that would move just like the ones he saw on his visit to this country.

Regarding what it represents conceptually, he indicated: I address the theme of the thousand voices, because in the movement of the pages, which are the books, there is a sound, a kind of music that is the voices of the writers..

The sculpture includes books by authors from all over the world and in all languages, since the artist’s idea is universality. In the enormous foliage they stand out The double flame, by Octavio Paz; The Celestina, by Fernando de Rojas; blood wedding, by Federico García Lorca; Book of restlessness, by Fernando Pessoa; The death of Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes; The portrait of Dorian Gray, the Oscar Wilde; The elective affinities, of Goethe, and The little friendby Paul Léautaud, among other works.

Freedom metaphor

The artist commented that he included novels, poetry, philosophy and art history, since what really interested him was the text, because The tree is a metaphor for freedom of expression through the author’s writing.

Hourdé expressed that it is the first time that he participates in the Havana Biennial and his sculpture is connected to the themes of revolution, freedom and emancipation. This piece, which symbolizes freedom of expression, was presented last March in Paris.

Meanwhile, the exhibition Daniel Hourdé: From Paris to Mexicomade up of 24 relatively recent pieces, including sculptures, chandeliers and furniture, will open at the Picci Fine Arts gallery on November 21.

The exhibition presents a set of pieces in all formats, some furniture-sculptures, which is not a completely functional piece of furniture, and also drawings made with models, with a technique in which I mix paint and charcoalexplained the French artist.

On paper supports, on cotton or a mirror, Hourdé’s emblematic charcoal-drawn bodies unfold: sometimes in a literal sense, making the drawing acquire a material, three-dimensional value, reminiscent of the new French realism of the 1990s. 60. The theme of the body that twists or is helped by animated skeletons corresponds to the artist’s interest in a corporality already present in the Christian art of the Flemish 16th century. The expiration of life juxtaposed with the splendor of bronze crowns make up one of the main axes of the work.

The exhibition in Mexico is the accumulation of more than 20 years of working relationship between Daniel Hourdé and Pichi Aguilar.

The French sculptor announced that he will soon install an exhibition in Paris and present a project in the Luxembourg Garden.

The sample Daniel Hourdé: From Paris to Mexico It will be inaugurated on November 21 at 6 p.m. at Picci Fine Arts (Alpes 700A, Lomas de Chapultepec) and will remain open to the public until December 21.