‘Ernest Pignon-Ernest’

For his intervention at BOZAR, the French visual artist, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, will present a series of images taken from Parcours Mahmoud Darwich, which he created in the Palestinian city of Ramallah in 2009. For almost 50 years, he has been posting images that have been painted or silk-screened on paper on the walls of cities. For him, the work only truly takes on meaning once it has been contextualised in its architectural and social environment: “... at the beginning there is a place, a living space that I want to work on. I try to understand it, to understand everything you see there: the space, the light, the colours... and, in the same movement, what you don’t see: the history, hidden memories, the symbolic weight... In this comprehended real location and in its complexity, I come and inscribe a fictitious element, an image. This inserted element aims to both create from this location a malleable space and work on memory by revealing, disturbing and heightening the symbolic...”. After placing Darwish in various locations around the Palestinian capital, he also brings him back to life in our walls, not disturbing the memory of this Palestinian poet, but making him present in our collective consciousness and highlighting the enduring nature of his work.