EXHIBITION WALL TEXTS
… Oltre
Fares Cachoux is both a committed artist and a profoundly free one. What distinguishes his work is the freedom with which he explores themes that concern us all, without offering ready-made answers or imposing a predetermined message. Instead, his art confronts us with reality and invites reflection.
For this reason, viewing Cachoux's works means accepting an invitation to look beyond appearances: beyond colour, beyond the veil, beyond immediate beauty. The title Beyond was chosen for this very reason. The exhibition unfolds as a journey of awareness, encouraging visitors to embrace change and recognise that every transformation begins with the courage to go beyond, to reach the essence of things, where art reveals itself as a bridge, a language and a universal refuge.
The exhibition is organised around a series of themes and environments that trace the evolution of Cachoux's artistic practice, a body of work that intertwines universal concerns with themes rooted in the Arab world. From The Syrian Revolution to the EYE to EYE series, and through works exploring the environment, identity and migration, the exhibition offers a broad and multifaceted view of the artist's creative universe. A central role is given to the female figure, who appears throughout the exhibition as a bearer of strength, resilience, dignity and transformation.
A striking contrast emerges in Cachoux's use of colour: vibrant, luminous and at times even joyful. This chromatic intensity becomes both a point of entry and a means of approaching subjects that are often painful and complex.
Fares Cachoux is a Franco-Syrian artist born in Homs, Syria. Active on the international art scene, he has exhibited at major institutions and artistic events across Europe and the Middle East. Among his most significant projects are the retrospective Figures Contemporaines at the Institut du monde arabe–Tourcoing in 2024 and his participation in Djerbahood in 2021, the renowned street art project that transformed the village of Erriadh, on the Tunisian island of Djerba, into an open-air museum. Following his first solo exhibition in Paris in 2015, his works were presented as part of Banksy's iconic Dismaland project.
His work has received international recognition and has been featured in publications including Le Monde, Libération, Courrier International, La Presse and The Huffington Post, as well as in volumes such as The Design of Dissent, dedicated to socially and politically engaged graphic design.
Today, his works form part of public and private collections across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, confirming the significant place he has established within the contemporary art scene.
Queens
The Queens series is a vibrant tribute to women and Mother Nature, where femininity and beauty intertwine with the life-giving forces of the natural world.
Depicting primarily women from the Middle East, with the sole exception of Queen Gaia, Fares Cachoux’s works celebrate feminine strength, dignity and courage.
This universe takes shape through a powerful and evocative visual language, distinguished by meticulous attention to detail and references deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of the lands the subjects represent.
Resilience, adaptability and a profound connection with nature are expressed through symbolic animals, which become metaphors for inner qualities and collective identities. Across the world, women embody an ancient and inseparable bond with the earth, reflecting the eternal cycle of life, transformation and renewal.
Through Queens, Cachoux transcends cultural and geographical boundaries to celebrate a universal form of resilience: that of women, whose ability to face and overcome adversity endures even as the world around them changes in painful and destructive ways. A quiet yet inexhaustible strength that knows no borders.
Queen Gaia
Queen Gaia was especially created for the Oltre exhibition. As the only Queen not from the Middle East, she is unique within the Queens series. Queen Gaia celebrates Italy, its artistic heritage, and cultural identity. The artwork’s colour palette is dominated by azzurro, the vibrant sky blue that symbolises Italian identity in sport and culture, originally adopted as a tribute to the Royal House of Savoy. At the same time, it captures the creative spirit and beauty for which the Bel Paese is renowned.
The name Gaia derives from the ancient Greek word meaning “earth.” In Greek mythology, she is a nurturing and powerful feminine force of nature, a theme central to this series. Gaia also embodies the joyful essence of life, a trait typical of the Italian temperament.
Each portrait in this series establishes a meaningful connection with nature through the presence of an animal. In Queen Gaia’s case, the ermine she gently holds symbolises purity and quiet resilience, offering a subtle homage to the rich legacy of the Italian Renaissance. She embodies the delicate balance between culture and nature, creating a bridge between the traditions of the past and the possibilities of the future.
A Better World
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the shopping trolley, once a symbol of boundless consumption, now sits as a monument to a civilisation destroyed by its own greed. Through excessive exploitation of the planet’s resources, humanity has orchestrated its own extinction.
In the void left by the excesses of humankind, time is suspended. Nature begins to breathe again, as life sprouts among the ruins, covering metal and concrete with vegetation; a new balance is restored, this time with no human intrusion.
Within this renewed wilderness, a small bird becomes a symbol of resilience, a discreet guardian of memory, a witness to the Earth’s slow rebirth and the dawn of a pure world. Nature silently reclaims its dominion, revealing a primordial beauty, finally freed from the noise and greed that once clouded its voice.
The Tolerant Bird
Tolerance is easy to understand but difficult to put into practice, yet it is an essential need for society in order to live harmoniously. It is a measure of our collective ability to recognise others, to understand our differences, and to listen without judgment. Tolerance is an exercise in rationality over emotion.
In his work, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), John Locke, the founder of modern liberalism, made tolerance the founding principle of freedom of conscience. Later, the French philosopher and writer Voltaire also defended tolerance as a cornerstone of modern democracy, an expression of humanity and a fundamental law of nature.
At a time when our tolerance is constantly being challenged, this work invites us to reflect on this precarious balance: who is truly free to be tolerant, the crocodile or the bird? Can one be tolerant when in a position of weakness, or is tolerance the privilege of the strong? In the apparent calm between the crocodile and the bird, tolerance reveals itself for what it is: a fragile balance and, at times, an act of courage, crystallised in the disproportion of their strength.
This artwork is part of the Tolerance Project.
Beautiful Syria
Freedom, Justice, Tolerance.
Beautiful Syria is a hopeful tribute to the nation: a land reborn, free and forged by the resilience of its people, who fought for their freedom even when all seemed lost.
The martyrs who sacrificed their lives for a future of dignity will never be forgotten. Their memory lives on in the promise of a free Syria, where all religious communities and ethnicities can finally coexist in tolerance, mutual respect, and unity as the foundation of a peaceful and just future.
The announcement of the fall of the regime in Damascus on December 8th, 2024, at 06:18 a.m., ended more than fifty years of rule by the Assad family. This historical moment will remain indelible in the minds of the Syrian people.
The artwork is a powerful visual statement that depicts a nation in change. The young woman, with her profile turned towards the future, envisions a new dawn shaped by hope. Her appearance has profound symbolism: the wheat stalks woven into her hair represent abundance and renewal, which blend harmoniously with the Damascene rose. The narrative is one of heritage and the promise of rebirth.
The artist conceives this artwork as the new and beautiful Syria, a land where tolerance lies at its heart.
A Seagull in the Mediterranean
Since 2015, the Mediterranean Sea has witnessed an unprecedented movement of people, from those fleeing war in the Middle East to migrants from Africa seeking a better life. These stories of hope and despair are all too common. This work stands out for its powerful visual expression and offers a touching portrayal of these tragic events.
The serenity of the title, A Seagull in the Mediterranean, and the reassuring shades of blue stand in sharp contrast to the true meaning of the artwork. Here, the artist makes a deliberate choice to omit the human presence from the title. The real impact lies in its simplicity: a solitary seagull perches on a submerged form in the sea, unaware of the tragedy it conceals. The power of the work emerges through this tension, in the distance between surface and depth, and between what is shown and what remains hidden.
This contrast can also be considered a form of subconscious denial of the reality of a grave situation, or the human tendency to activate coping mechanisms, adapt, and allow life to go on, muting the ills of the world. The sea, like our memory, moves on, and like memory, it is fragile, ephemeral, and at times constantly changing.
Marianne
Marianne is the national allegorical representation and personification of the French Republic and its values: Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, the motto adopted by the people during the French Revolution.
Cachoux’s Marianne appears as a strong young woman; her gaze is turned towards the future and embodies many recognisable symbols of France. She wears the traditional Phrygian cap, adorned with two plants: a blade of wheat, symbolising a fertile and generous France, and the olive branch, the emblem of peace and prosperity. Tradition holds that this headgear was worn by the galley slaves of Marseille who were freed in 1792. From then on, it became a symbol of liberty and revolution.
The blue, white, and red of the French flag permeate the work, thus reinforcing its national identity. An axe stands behind her, evoking a strong and determined France, capable of defending itself, alongside the rooster, the national emblem and ancient symbol of the Gauls, whose crowing heralds the end of darkness and the arrival of a new dawn. A rosette frames these elements, while the radiant red background presents a France that shines across the world through culture and the arts.
Cachoux pays tribute to this powerful symbol of liberty by dedicating it to Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, brutally beheaded in France in October 2020 for conveying to his students the value and importance of freedom of expression. The brutal murder of this teacher emphasises the urgent need to give concrete meaning to secularism in order to safeguard freedom of education as a tool of empowerment for all citizens.
EYE to EYE
Fares Cachoux spent more than ten years in the Gulf countries, an endless source of inspiration for this series. The title of this remarkable body of work derives from the only visible feature of a woman concealed behind the niqab: her eyes, transformed into a powerful symbol of individuality and identity.
Although playful and at times ironic, the series invites profound reflection on the delicate search for balance between tradition and modernity in contemporary Middle Eastern societies.
At the heart of this exploration lies the issue of communication and identity. How can we establish an authentic and meaningful dialogue when a person's face, expression and appearance are concealed?
The niqab represents both faith and cultural belonging. To an outside observer, the absence of visible and distinctive facial features can make the individuality of the wearer less readily recognisable.
The artist creates a space in which these veiled women challenge prejudice and stereotypes. Their complex and, at times, fearless personalities reveal how their true selves emerge and shine beyond the veil, with a hidden strength that is never extinguished.
Cachoux also addresses the theme of patriarchy through four male portraits, highlighting how social pressures and cultural legacies continue to shape social hierarchies according to dynamics that are recognisable far beyond this specific geographical context.
Questa versione è perfettamente naturale in British English e mantiene un registro curatoriale adatto a un catalogo di mostra.