Il y eut deux lunes et deux soleils ce matin là

November 2021

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Christine Safa and Nathan Bertet shared a studio in autumn 2021 in Le Marais, bringing together their respective creativity. All the works produced during their residency are motivated by personal conceptual approaches, each speaking of their inner world, within a creative context testifying of their complicity. Their work was exhibited in the historic mill of Le Marais, bathed in the warm and melancholic light of autumn. This exhibition, Il y eut deux lunes et deux soleils ce matin-là, is above all a tribute to the Franco-Lebanese artist and poet Etel Adnan, who died in November of that  same year. Christine shared with her memories of Lebanon and, more specifically, a very intimate relationship with the memory that their pictorial works revive.

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About

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From Lebanese origin, Christine Safa was born in 1994 in the Yvelines and now lives in Paris. She graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2018.

Her paintings are true odes to light and its various expressions, translating the poetry of the different atmospheres it creates. Her compositions, whose shapes are derived from fragments of her memory, from "ruins of memories", often mix and confuse faces and landscapes. Their sobriety only reinforces the power of her colors, outlining the contours of an eminently intimate work.

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Nathan Bertet was born in 1997 in Paris. He studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

His paintings explore the concept of myth and the way they take shape plastically, each work needing to be powerful enough to stay faithful to the strength of the ideas it conveys. Inspired by the work of the famous French engraver from the 19th century Gustave Doré, Nathan has developed a strong interest in the Bible and the founding stories of the Christian religion. His work is now exploring a mythology of his own, by platically embodying his stories and memories, he  aspires to sacralise them.

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