L'Absurde et Le Rêve

An exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos and Arne Quinze that invites visitors on an immersive journey into a universe where dreams, poetry, and surrealism converse with nature, in the spirit of

At La Citadelle, Arne Quinze, a Belgian artist born in 1971, and Joana Vasconcelos, a Portuguese artist born in 1971, invite visitors to step into a universe where the absurd and the dreamlike intertwine, in a playful dialogue with the reality we inhabit and the ways in which we have learned to live on our planet.

These two major figures of the international art scene are joining forces creatively for the very first time to offer a different perspective, the possibility of a different world, in the spirit of Jean Cocteau, whose artistic and poetic presence deeply marked Villefranche-sur-Mer and its surrounding area.

By intertwining the absurd and the dreamlike in his writings and visual creations, Cocteau blurred the boundaries. His films, such as Le Testament d’Orphée, shot in Villefranche, alongside his plays and drawings, constantly evoke the oneiric impulses of the subconscious.

It is this resonance with the irrational and the mysterious that prompted Arne Quinze to invite Joana Vasconcelos, and together to design an unapologetically surreal journey.

Joana Vasconcelos’s work revolves around the liberation of the feminine, long confined to domestic spaces, bringing it boldly into the public sphere.

She questions traditions and social roles by extracting objects associated with the domestic realm and placing them in unexpected contexts. Textiles, ceramics, and household items are thus transformed outside the domestic sphere, giving birth to entirely new realities.

Through monumental compositions, large-scale interventions, and inventive material assemblages, she continually paves the way for decontextualized interpretations of reality.

Arne Quinze shares this quest to reinterpret our contemporary human world through a lens that places nature back at the center. In his practice, he explores the lost connection between humanity, culture, and nature, by questioning the way