To enter ‘OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM’, visitors must first sidestep a temporary wall affixed with three large-scale canvases hatched with frantic, intersecting lines. Although HOW CAN I FORGET YOU (all works 2022) is ostensibly a work by Malagasy artist Joël Andrianomearisoa, it closely echos the embroidery in ET SI LA MAIN ÉTAIT L’HISTOIRE (And If the Hand Was History), a collaboration between Andrianomearisoa and Marrakech-based cooperative Assabirates. In doing so, HOW CAN I FORGET YOU is both a drawing and manifesto, immediately signaling to audiences that – although this exhibition is billed as MACAAL’s first show dedicated to a single, living artist – Andrianomearisoa doesn’t intend to enter the museum alone.
Article by: Chloe Stead