ART
interview by DONATIEN GRAU
all artwork by MATHIEU BRIAND,
copyright adagp, paris, 2021
libertalia, a small island located near nosy be in northwest madagascar, was founded by pirates in the 17th century as a free society. fact or fiction, according to writings from the era this colony was much more than a simple asylum for buccaneers: it was a real social and philosophical utopia, the modern equivalent of atlantis, and the precursor of 19th-century phalansteries.
DONATIEN GRAU — You went to an island to devote yourself to an art project. What was the starting point, going “elsewhere”?
MATHIEU BRIAND — When you’re born and grow up in Marseille, elsewhere is in your blood. The starting point, the thing that took me from thought to action, was an image: an attractive, almost satirical image of an island paradise. There it was, in all its tropical-island perfection, within reach, just opposite…