Jakayu Biljabu, Minya Puru (Seven Sisters Story) 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 91 cm, Courtesy Martumili Artists.
Le Chant Aborigène des Sept Sœurs (The Seven Sisters Story) offers a complementary intimate look at the Seven Sisters, an important Aboriginal creation myth celebrated in the exhibition Songlines – Tracking the Seven Sisters at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac.
The exhibition features a selection of Seven Sisters-themed works, including recent and older works, by artists from different generations and different regions of Australia, revealed in an atypical exhibition space in the superb Parisian arcade Passage du Grand Cerf.
Like an invitation to travel, the exhibition follows the trail of the Seven Sisters, a group of ancestral women whose adventures, sung, danced and drawn for millennia, contribute to explain the creation of the world and Aboriginal tribal laws, from the central desert to the Pilbara region near the west coast of Australia, crossing three Australian states.
The works in the exhibition present different interpretations of the story depending on whether the Seven Sisters are on earth or in the sky in the form of stars, and as many perceptions of landscapes, and allow us to understand the relationship that the artists have to their ancestral land, to Earth and to the world around them.
The works of young emerging artists respond to the works of their parents and grandparents, while a dialogue is created between works of varied styles and approaches, testifying to the resilience, diversity and incredible dynamism of the contemporary Indigenous Australian creation.
Organised by social enterprise IDAIA in collaboration with Aboriginal artist cooperatives, in partnership with New Angles – Five Seeds and with the support of the Embassy of Australia to France.
The exhibited artworks are available for sale to generate revenues for the artists and the cooperatives, and to contribute to support the ethical and sustainable Indigenous Australian art sector.
Practical information:
5 April – 1st July 2023
Special events:
- Wednesday 5 April at 18:00 – Opening Ceremony
- Public and educational program
Venue:
Espace New Angles – Five Seeds
8, passage du Grand Cerf
Paris 2e – France
Passage entrance: 145 rue Saint Denis or opposite 49 rue Montorgueil
Métro: Les Halles – Etienne Marcel – Sentier
Admission: free entry
Opening times:
- Thursday – Friday: 17:00 – 20:00
- Saturday: 11:00 – 18:00
- And by appointment
CONTACT: for any question, to receive the media package or the catalogue, please email info@idaia.com.au or info@idaia.fr
Poster of exhibition “Le Chant Aborigène des Sept Sœurs (The Seven Sisters Story)”