Exposition - Beverly Buchanan. Impermanences

For the first presentation of her work in France, 49 Nord 6 Est presents works by Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015) in dialogue with the practice of Hélène Yamba-Guimbi (1995, France).

Born in North Carolina, Beverly Buchanan's work is rooted in the popular culture of the American South, where she grew up. In particular, she explores the history of slavery through monuments that she inserts into the landscape at the edge of the visible, like stories that are not told. Her sculptures and drawings reflect her attachment to traditional folk constructions, which she reinterprets, restoring both their vulnerability and the tenacity that made them exist in the first place.

Beverly Buchanan creates snatches of space, structures formed by memory and experience, evoking the fragility of living conditions in the African-American community in the American South. In her pastel drawings, as much as in her concrete or wood sculptures, she recomposes volumes, reveals or leaves in shadow, and reminds us that perception changes according to one's point of view.

Hélène Yamba-Guimbi's occasional interventions in exhibition spaces invite us to consider the physical dimension of artistic work, to feel the tensions between infrastructure and body. Through sound, she explores the question of effort and the tenuous element of breath. The exhibition invites us to discover an artist who, over and above the formal power of her works, strives to transcribe the transitory nature of life, resonating with the sense of instability that pervades our times.