Activities, exhibitions and projects

Image: Detail of an artwork by Evelyne Rigaud

From January 19th to March 8th, 2024

PINK. Or Evelyne's Challenge

The strength in the work of Evelyne Rigaud (1990, Bordeaux, France) lies in the way she confronts her greatest nightmares. And she does it by confronting emotions that, at first glance, seem discordant. Like herself, her works oscillate between passion and balance, between softness and hardness, between vulnerability and strength.

Trained in Management and Marketing in France and Germany, the imprint of these studies is evident in her interest in using simple geometric forms that communicate an idea in an easy and direct way. But when we observe her paintings, that balance collides head-on with the energy of vibrant and assertive colors, counterbalancing the simplicity produced by the former with the instability of the latter, causing the viewer to focus entirely on the emotions they are experiencing.

To feel, to be moved, to rebel... to question things. That is Rigaud's intention in each of the projects she undertakes, both for herself and to inspire the viewer with her work. She needs to confront her demons while denouncing the inequalities of a society she does not understand and a system of rules that she has faced since childhood.

Therefore, PINK is a challenge she has set for herself, painted ad nauseam with a color she detests for its meaning, for everything it represents: inequality, stereotypes, a world divided in two (pink for girls, blue for boys), the color of girls, of princesses.

At the same time, she challenges the audience. Being in a room surrounded by pink everywhere, one must confront the meanings that color represents, discover one's own personal baggage carried from childhood, and the social differences it conveys. And all this pink world is represented enclosed in squares. This simple geometric shape has a special meaning for our artist. The square gives her tranquility and conveys balance... just like for everyone else. But for her, it also produces great unease at the same time because it reminds her of labeled boxes in which society and its prejudices confine us.

Once again, we find the counterposition, the struggle between extremes on a delicate tightrope. Evelyne Rigaud explores emotional limits like a tightrope walker, with the same energy she uses to explore her physical and mental limits in her performances, which, by the way, we can also see in the exhibition thanks to the audiovisual.

Text by Victoria Abón

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