Exhibition The dreamer of the forest at the Musée Zadkine

Forests and trees have become a real societal issue as shown by the exhibitions on this matter currently planned in Paris and everywhere else.   Drawing on multiple sources – poetry, philosophy, science – The dreamer of the Forest crosses eras, media and genres. The exhibition brings together almost a hundred works by some forty artists. Thanks to exceptional loans from museums, private collections and artists, it sheds new light on Ossip Zadkine’s work, the characteristic living materiality of his sculptures and their organic connection to the forest. Autobiographical, the title refers to the sculptor, to his intimate attachment to the forest.   The exhibition questions the fascination made of the mixed fear and enchantment that the forest arouses in the common imagination. Refuge of the living, the wild, the sacred, the wild world represents what escapes the human endeavours of domestication and rationalization of the world; what pre-exists and will survive them.   In a context marked by the rise of environmental and ecological concerns, this project engages in anthropological and artistic reflection around a theme that has given rise to many masterpieces since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and which remains of burning relevance among contemporary artists.   Guided by visionary watchmen who, to nourish their art or regenerate it, truly or metaphorically, make multiple round trips to the heart of the wilderness, visitors walk from the edge of the woods to the natural ecosystem and the mysteries of the forest. In this way, he discovers the evolution and transformation of the view of the forest, a living organism, perceived by some as a refuge of vital force, through a three-step process: The Edge – Genesis – Sacred woods, dormant woods.     The dreamer of the forest Musée Zadkine, Paris From 27 September 2019 to 23 February 2020   © D.R.