Parade

Date: 2022
Medium: Acrylic and alcohol-based paint on canvas
Collection: Samdani Art Foundation

Pol Taburet

OPERA III : ZOO "The Day of Heaven and Hell"

Exhibition

from 21 Jun to 03 Sep 2023
The couple in Parade is inspired by the mythological characters of Orpheus and Eurydice in Black Orpheus, a musical film by Marcel Camus, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959.

This film has the particularity both of situating this Greek myth in the pulsating, colourful, and festive setting of the Rio carnival and of the Brazilian favelas, and of using non-professional Black actors. In the myth, Orpheus goes to the underworld to save Eurydice and bring her back to earth with him. The only condition for doing so is that he does not look her in the eye or look back at her along the way. Orpheus fails and the reunion of the couple becomes eternally impossible. The two figures are shown here with their arms raised and on tiptoe, as if engaged in a dance, or perhaps in the position of the crucified body of Christ. They seem to be escaping from the yellow door, which stands out in the landscape as an attractive and intriguing presence. Pol Taburet places his two figures, with their tragic destiny, in a landscape of festive colors, and adorns them with jewels reminiscent of those worn at carnivals.

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