Aureil Patrick BESSAN (Patricorel) - (1990) - No title

Born in 1990 in Cotonou, Aureil Patrick BESSAN, known as Patricordel, is a young Beninese visual artist who practices sculpture, painting, drawing and installation. After his master's degree in Art History at the University of Abomey Calavi, he focused his research on the art of recovery and the reappropriation of objects. He finds pleasure in recycling glass bottles, wood and dead leaves that he collects from the streets, from garbage piles and from garbage cans. Ingeniously, he succeeds in diverting wine bottles from their original functions to offer new works of great originality and a very striking visual force. They give them new life and nobility. He draws an analogy between the fragility of bottles and the nature of men, which also lacks resistance. In each of his sculptures, there is an alloy between tradition and modernity. His great inventiveness, his unique sense of humour and his keen sense of observation will unite and contribute to the creation of his unique style. Right away, his remarkable work on glass bottles caught the attention of the public and the art world. He has been selected to participate in group and solo exhibitions and artistic residencies in Africa and Europe.

Always on the lookout for new artistic expressions, he is currently exploring a rather original technique that consists of transforming recycled plastic bags into plastic supports on which he draws, writes, describes, scribbles to give birth to characters with very expressive faces. You can't see the skin, you can only see bones, you can easily plunge inside the bodies, walk around, get lost, in a kind of labyrinth. For him, the suppression of skin colour is a way of denouncing racism, of talking about equality, about the finitude of man. His resolutely conscious, committed art is a strong sign for a liberated, fraternal, open and creative Africa.

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