［Press Release］
bazaar compatible program #75
31°12.246′N 121°25.010′E
Never Give Up Before It’s Too Late
painting and floral arrangement by Renaud Bezy
2014/06/17 – 2014/06/29
Shanghai, 98 Anshun Road, stall 26
Never Give Up Before It’s Too Late
The villa is an elegant Modernist architecture which could have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In the drawing room, an inner wall built of solid stones contrasts with a large bay window through which a splendid and languid sunset can be admired. It is one of those long and glorious summer evenings (or is it Spring ?) where time seems to have stopped.
The house is furnished with purposely Minimalist taste : here, a stylish armchair and a sofa, there a coffee table and in the background, a curtain cleverly hidden in the corner of the French window can discretely but efficiently blind the room and provide an intimate comfort. And finally, hanging on the wall the only decorative mark, a mask (Inca ? Maya ?) that Claude brought back from one of his travels.
It should have been a delicious evening with friends made of friendly verbal sparring matches where everyone could have competed with verve, but something had confused the guests for a moment…
Jacques is standing up, grinning, he, hammy, who likes to make the least syllable ring. Michel is lost in thought, and his beautiful voice with metallic sounds is now quiet . Roland, full of manners, is always eager to help. He’s coming back from the kitchen with a tray covered up with coffee cups and finds this assembly astound. And then Claude, the Master of the house and the dean of this gathering is sitting, impassive behind his glasses. It is difficult to perceive the emotions he’s going through. Outside, in the garden, a human figure can be made out. It seems to be Louis, who is not sure if he should come in.
All of them seem to be wrapped in a freezing silence. No one but a poodle is paying attention to a seemingly insignificant detail : a small flower bunch lying on the coffee table, a mundane item should it not be enclosed in a transparent half invisible glass case.
NEVER GIVE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE is a pictorial celebration that pays tribute to all the little bouquets neglected in the world.
NEVER GIVE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE is an open studio, a performative act, a painting in progress and an installation among the shops, hair dressers and Ma-Jong players of a Shanghai bazaar.
NEVER GIVE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE quotes an aphorism by the German artist Martin Kippenberger.
Renaud Bezy
Shanghai, June 14, 2014
