PRESS RELEASE
From chaos to wisdom, a late-period masterwork by Bangkok based sculptor Valérie Goutard (Val), awarded year-long exhibition at the Conservatory of Music Benedetto Marcello of Venice
Bangkok, 24 May 2023 – The Conservatory of Music Benedetto Marcello in Venice, located in one of the most remarkable palazzos of La Serenissima, has selected From Chaos to Wisdom by Valérie Goutard for a full year’s exhibition. The inauguration of this masterpiece in the historical setting recently took place under the patronage of the Sumus Foundation.
Val’s renowned sculpture, created at her Bangkok studio, is in perfect harmony within this temple of excellence, talent and virtuosity. In the Conservatory, music and sculpture vibrate in unison, creating a moment of intense introspection for the visitor who can feel the philosophical journey that each of us must undertake to move from the chaos of our unconscious to the wisdom of our full consciousness.
The sculpture featured at the Conservatory of Music Benedetto Marcello of Venice is the 1:5 scale version of her masterpiece Du chaos à la sagesse. That monumental sculpture – among the largest contemporary bronze sculptures in the world – is 36 meters long, and was installed on a hill overlooking the city of Taichung in Taiwan.
Through this masterpiece on view now at the Conservatory of Music in Venice, Val describes the inner and philosophical journey that an individual must make to move from the chaos of his subconscious to the wisdom of a conscious state. This journey is illustrated through seven scenes as follows :
Chaos : Where an individual is submerged by mental and physical structures to which he or she is measured. It is a world where he or she is outdated and that he or she must understand to face it.
Crossing the ordeal : The structures become organized and the individual positions himself/herself with and in relation with his environment.
Hide and seek : What are we looking for ? The individual walks forward and plays not to
confront his/her thoughts. A hide and seek game with life.
A forest : A dense forest in the middle of which the self-image appears.
Introspection : With the help of an Angkor Wat-style temple structure, the individual walks, assesses the scales of all what surrounds them, what he himself/herself is … They walk towards peace and purity.
The gates of freedom : Suddenly the environment organizes itself and the right path is shown.
Wisdom : There, higher up, peace is at the end of acquired purity.
Biographical highlights and key facts about Val
Valérie Goutard (Val – 1967-2016) was a renowned French sculptor who created all her work in her Bangkok studio. From 2007 until her sudden death in October 2016, she exhibited her artworks all around Asia and also in Europe and the United States.
Val moved from the plane to the space for her sculpture, to become a sign, in the light of its particular links with the environment. Val questioned the place of man in our society and contemplated the destiny of our era through her work. While some focus solely on formalism, Val sought a deeper connection with the world around her.
She was an artist who believed in the durability of the emotional charge of the visible. She has given birth to highly stylized humanist sculptures, whose symbolism refers to what it carries most deeply within herself. But what she intended above all to capture, as she emphasized, are “moments”, moments captured on the spot, which she fixes in the perforated structure of her bronze frames which align both with her organizing drive and her quest for the absolute. Some highlights:
In 2010, the Jing‘An Park Sculpture Project Comity chose the monumental sculpture of Val Urban Life (bronze – L220xH500xD250 cm) to be the icon of the Shanghai Art Fair and to be exhibited on the forecourt of the exhibition.
In 2015, Val was awarded the Trophée des Français de l’Étranger in the art category at Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Quai D’Orsay in Paris.
From 2015 to 2016, she undertook the creation of the world’s largest contemporary bronze sculpture, entitled Du chaos à la sagesse.
In 2016, Val received a rare honor as a Western artist to be invited for a solo exhibition by the China Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), and two of her sculptures were acquired for the museum’s permanent collection.
The same year, she also installed Ocean Utopia in the Gulf of Thailand, an artwork that incorporates a genuine ecological approach.
Finally, in 2020, Val’s work was ranked as one of the most remarkable in the history of French sculpture by Artsper Magazine : https://blog.artsper.com/en/get-inspired/10-french-sculptors-you-should-know-about/
For more information, please contact :
TQPR Thailand
Tom Van Blarcom, tom@tqpr.com or
Nuie Titichayapon, nuie@tqpr.com, 02 260 5820