Flood geology

Between heaven and earth lies water. Or rather, water is in the heavens, under the earth and on the earth. Water has always been

nourishes the founding myths of various civilizations and great religions.

Somewhere between science and belief, the Geology of Floods is a strange quest, tracking hypothetical shorelines around the world. These traces left by water over the centuries appear as possible witnesses to catastrophes – rising waters from the depths, as in this enigmatic extract from the Koran: “and we caused the earth to gush forth in springs” – or, on the contrary, from the heavens: “on that day, all the springs of the immense abyss of water were split and the sluices of the heavens opened”.

In Iranian Zoroasian sacred texts, Indian and Chinese stories, the flood myth is repeated, alternating between a punitive vision and the advent of a new era. The Flood is both a geological and a human epic. There was not one, but many floods. Abdelkader Benchamma, fascinated by this hypothesis of a collective unconscious inhabited by common myths, returns here to the echo of his research. He attempts to fathom the collective psyche, built around the idea of an aquatic catastrophe, found in Asia, Mesopatamia, India and South America.

For the past twenty years, the artist has been exploring the origins of the universe in its morphological and symbolic components. He formalizes this interest in the strata of the world by inscribing signs and reliefs on various surfaces. Abdelkader Benchamma infuses his ensembles with vibrations and rhythms. Mineral, vegetal and cosmic forms pour powerfully into the spaces, taking the form of unstable worlds, heckling the viewer. The art center becomes a fragmented territory, as much geological as mythological. A cavern with tenebrous gushes and an aquatic atlas guide us towards a karst plain, which is built on the outskirts of dried-up planets, while comet tails bombard the territory with extraterrestrial water. A telluric world takes shape, with water and minerals living side by side.

Abdelkader Benchamma reveals his own images of the waters that flood the world, leaving visible impacts and grooves on the rocks.

Curator: Marie Terrieux