HAF member, artist Mickael Bethe-Selassie of France will open one of his largest exhibitions next week. Château de Ladoucette in Drancy, a cultural facility dedicated to the visual arts, history, heritage and science, is hosting the exhibition. Over 70 works by Mickael will be featured—filling eight rooms in the gallery space. This major retrospective exhibition represents Mickael’s work in nearly thirty years of creation. His work has been exhibited both in France and abroad. The well-known, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, has shown Michael’s work in the past also. The exhibition opened March 25 and runs through May 21, 2017.
Mickael asserts his Ethiopian heritage and confessed he became an international artist almost by chance. Born in a small town in eastern Ethiopia, Mickaël Bethe-Selassie spent his adolescence in Addis Ababa. He arrived in France at the age of 20 to study physics and chemistry.
Born in the cradle of humanity, Mickael’s work is composed of multiple mythologies, happily gathered in a maelstrom culture. These sculptural renderings emerge from forms both powerful and fragile: totems, patriarchs, kings, goddesses and other fantastic animals in an array of colors. His work is mysterious and intense, hot and deep—portraying whimsical distortions of reality.
HAF was able to learn a little more about Mickael’s work.
HAF: What is the span of the works you are exhibiting in this show? What makes this show special for you?
Mickael: The year span of the works is 1988-2017. The show is special for that reason firstly. It shows artistically and in 3 dimensions the whole aspect of the universe I create. Human, animal and mechanics (the bicycles for example). In this collective presence each work exhibited reinforces all the others. It shows also how patient and passionate an artist must be to creating them in general. When people come to my studio, they have just an opportunity to see a forest of sculptures. They can’t see all details in one moment. They can’t see what is present behind if there is no place to turn around. In a space like Ladoucette, one is permitted to have a less restricted panorama.
HAF: How did you first become connected with the medium, papier mache’?
Mickael: I first begun making sculptures with clay. It was not possible for me then to create large scale sculptures with clay, so I was looking for other materials. Some friends who used to make marionettes suggested papier mâché. I was also aware of papier mâché for having seen the carnival in Trinidad &Tobago in February 1981 before my vocation was revealed. It took me just two or three months to discover paper mâché will be my favorite material. I was happy with the idea of recycling newspaper and adding an ecological philosophy to my work.
HAF: How do your Ethiopian roots translate into your sculptural works?
Mickael: I moved to France in 1971 (total 46 years). My African roots are present unconsciously. The first 20 years I visited Ethiopia during my younger ages, which are still part of me. I did not return to Ethiopia between 1973 and 1993. During that time I traveled Europe and the Caribbean, studying and working with my art and becoming more conscious about our world, the black cultures and mainly the universality of mankind.
