For its inauguration, the Helenis GGL Foundation in Montpellier is hosting four personalities from the contemporary art world: Abdelkader Benchamma, Jim Dine, Jan Fabre and Marlène Mocquet. Each of the four artists will present an artwork for the event - which will open the season in what aims to become one of the city's major cultural centres.

FONDATION HELENIS GGL, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE

Inauguration -  November 2020

For his first solo exhibition in a French museum, Abdelkader Benchamma invests three rooms at Mrac Occitanie with an immersive installation drawing inspiration from his residence at Villa Médicis in autumn 2018. In Rome, Abdelkader Benchamma is fascinated by the richness of church decorations, in particular by the representation of marbles in the works of the Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. The Old Master’s depictions render the illusion of precious stones by playing on symmetry of veins, thus creating spiritually charged abstract forms. The title of the exhibition, Fata Bromosa, (literally Fairy of the Mists) refers to that blurring of perception dear to Fra Angelico. The term indicates an optical phenomenon observed by navigators in the Middle Ages which gives the impression of a bright-rimmed fog perceptible on the horizon. To depict without representing seems to be the artist's ambition: drawing become an emanation of nature, but of a different kind, intimate and unfathomable.

MUSÉE RÉGIONAL D'ART CONTEMPORAIN OCCITANIE /PYRÉNÉES - MÉDITERRANÉE, SÉRIGNAN, FRANCE
Du 23 /11/2019 au 20/09/2020

As our first full-fledged exhibition featuring contemporary art, Syncopation will present a wide range of works of art from the Pola Museum of Art collection, including paintings, sculptures, and Oriental ceramics, along with works by artists active on the front lines of contemporary expression. Here various works by contemporary artists, including installations filling entire rooms, sound art, video art, and a piece exhibited outdoors, are shedding new light on works by the modern masters, encouraging multifaceted interpretation.

POLA MUSEUM OF ART, KANAGAWA, JAPON
From 10/08/2019 to 01/12/2019

The Lagrasse Abbey, located in the Corbières massif in the Orbieu Valley, is considered one of the most important Benedictine settlements in the Aude region.For IN SITU Patrimoine et art contemporain, Abdelkader Benchamma has made a large mural of nearly 40 square meters facing the Renaissance fireplace of the ceremonial hall of the Abbey.

ABBAYE DE LAGRASSE, LAGRASSE, FRANCE
From 26/06/2019 to 01/09/2019

At the invitation of Nicolas Bourriaud, director of the MOCO Collection Hotel in Montpellier, Abdelkader Benchamma has created a permanent installation in the public space of the city as part of the "100 artists in the city" program. The Cosma installation is made from incrustations of marble slabs and is completed with paintings. The title refers to the art of marble mosaic pavements developed by the Cosmati between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in Rome.

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
From 08/06/2019 to 28/07/2019

The Tripostal unfolds the great Eldorado story through a myriad of contemporary works of art borrowed from all over the world. In three chapters, corresponding to the three floors of the building: 1. The dreamed worlds, 2. The rush, 3. An endless Eldorado, the exhibition stages the universal adventure of all the eldorados who spur individuals and people to move
and relocate.

Curators: Jérôme Sans, Jean-Max Colard, with the collaboration of Isabelle Bernini.

TRIPOSTAL, LILLE, FRANCE
From 27/04/2019 to 01/10/2019

UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE is questioning our relationship with the real world through many sectors of creation and knowledge, on the frontiers of science, tradition, fantasy, sciencefiction and ultimately of the real. UN AUTRE MONDE///DANS NOTRE MONDE is a hybrid event between the itinerant collective exhibition, the symposium and the epistemological experimental laboratory.

FRAC PACA, MARSEILLES, FRANCE
From 23/03/2019 to 02/06/2019