Traduslation

Tradūcĕre. Trans-dūcō. Leading through. To carry from one language to another. To translate... Going back to the Latin roots of this verb evokes the principle of sliding from one state to another, the need to keep its integrity while changing its form. At the end of the process, the result has no apparent similarity with the original representation. And yet the meaning remains unchanged, or almost. For the series Traduslation, Réjean Peytavin borrows from this process this effect of sliding from one signifier to another, from one plastic language to another. His referent is a series of ceramics observed in various museums for which the artist expressed interest in the most subjective way possible. A relationship of form, an intriguing colour, an intriguing origin, …There is no objective explanation for the dialogue between Réjean Peytavin and the selected ceramics. The selection is only done by an invisible link between the artist and the evocative power of these pieces. The artist drew this object on paper and inevitably altered their plasticity and three-dimensionality. The drawings are then sent to Morocco where the weavers of the Mabrouka Cooperative turn them into kilim. Once back in the artist’s studio, these woven carpets become the first source of inspiration for the creation of new ceramics. A series where references and artistic choices are subtly combined. Inspired by the Roman city discovered on the Moroccan archaeological site of Volubilis, Réjean Peytavin questions the origin of the style of his mosaics similar to the one of Berber carpets, an influence that suggests millennia-old shifts between medium. This evocation also recalls the age of weaving, a craft as old as ceramics but leaving little evidence, the oldest witness, the Pazyryk Carpet, dating from several centuries before our era. Like the action of weaving, these references intertwine with each other, like the stitches of the weavers, to tell a story, to dialogue between past, present and future. This triptych - drawing, kilim, ceramics - refers to the notion of meeting and opening up to the unknown: an artwork, culture or person. Inherent to the concept of translation, dialogue and exchange extend this process questioning our relationship to the object, its appropriation in its representation and its alteration in its reinterpretation. The shift present in Traduslation echoes the evolution of any individual or culture, the result of exchanges and meeting. With his work of plastic reformulation constructed as a testimony of the present dedicated to the future, Réjean Peytavin speaks of humanity, its history and its perpetual development.

Thibaut Wauthion