BERLIN ART LINK

There isn’t an exact translation in English for the French word empreintes, which refers to any impression—from a footprint to a trace to a fingerprint to a stamp. It’s essentially an impression that lingers. In 1977, the Centre Pompidou held a show on the same subject, entitled ‘L’empreinte,’ but the current exhibition at Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire takes the concept one step further, examining the imprint as it moves from gesture to language (“du geste au langage”).

Gestures are signifiers of emotion and a language of their own: in the theater, at the ballet and across a crowded room. Hands are waved in excitement, fingers crossed in hope, knees buckled in grief. The imprint is what remains: a crimson lipstick stain on a napkin, a wet footprint on summer pavement, the ashes of a cigarette—traces of time and the human body.

It’s this concept that curator Pierre El Khoury brings the work of Alexandre Fandard, Mariana Hahn and Giovanni Leonardo Bassan together to explore. The three artists come from international contexts, but all call Paris their home. From canvas to copper, clay, cushions and military blankets, their multi-material practices show how gestures translate memory and movement to visual language.

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