The Concept of Distance - Echoes (from Indian Ocean)

The Indian Ocean often evokes fantasized visions of exotic dreams. Far from postcards clichés, Malala Andrialavidrazana brings us discreetly into private spheres in Antananarivo, Mumbai, Durban and Reunion Island, and presents the viewer with day-to-day atmospheres, still-lives and fragmented portraits with elegance and subtlety. She is driven by the diversity of those communities and how identities are expressed in a world of mass communication and where uniformity leaves its mark on people. Playing with boundaries in general and more particularly with the passages existing between anthropology, contemporary art and architecture, she explores the authenticity and intimacy of the middle classes in the urban areas on the Indian Ocean.

Malala Andrialavidrazana was born in Madagascar in 1971, and lives in Paris since the early 80’s. She came across the photographic medium through her architectural background, while exploring the death universe at the boundaries of nature and culture. Gradually, she invents a language whose approach is resolutely turned toward History but whose engagement in the City remains active.

Issues such as cultural change, relationships with the social structure, and the consequences of urban spatial organization in a globalized world are at the heart of Malala Andrialavidrazana’s artistic reflections. Interpreting her works implies understanding culture’s value as a major part of the social imaginary. In her collection of visuals, which has a subtle hint of anthropology of proximity, focusing on the reverse side of the scenery, and examining the in-between space in a multitude of heres and nows, she proposes an open frame where borders do not exist.

Malala Andrialavidrazana graduated from Paris La Villette School of Architecture in 1996. Her “d’Outre-Monde” series was awarded the prestigious HSBC Prize for Photography, and released by the renowned Actes Sud publisher in 2004. She received the joint support of the Institut Français and the National Arts Council of South Africa through the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 & 2013 program for her project “Echoes (from Indian Ocean)”, published by Kehrer Verlag in 2013.

Enquiries: Sharon Werthen 021 480 7111