Philippe Katerine first encrusted himself in our hearts through music thanks to his catchy and absurd titles, like The banana, Luxor I love, Fuck you and others I like your butt. The Frenchman has also dabbled in cinema – he even won a César – and writing books. Here, Montreal will discover another facet of the endearing character, the latter coming to present in the city center around fifteen sculptures whose inspiration is drawn from an artistic movement that he himself created: “cuteism”.
Various sites in the heart of the metropolis, notably the Quartier des spectacles, receive visits from imposing and rotund people until September 29 Mr. Rose, which each have their own particularities and which catch the eye with their bubble gum color. In Quebec, the Exmuro organization also highlights the artist’s work.
Naive works? Their creator, Philippe Katerine, met alongside one of them, rejects the label. ” On the contrary. “Cuteness” is not a movement that goes towards childhood, not at all. Yes, of course, there is no angle – I hate angles, I can’t stand them – but it moves towards a lucidity which allows us to see what we cannot see. Or what we no longer see. »
This invented current, more worthy of performance, says it praises beauty in simplicity. The Frenchman who proclaims himself the “dictator” draws on his career in the visual arts, which began before his musical career. “It wasn’t very serious. Well… It opened me up to a lot of things anyway, things that still influence me today. Theorists like Yves Klein or Warhol, of course, Marcel Duchamp. »
Philippe Katerine does not divert ordinary objects with these Mr. Rose, but he still changes something by installing them in the city. “This glass on the table, if you place it in the middle of a field of daisies, it is no longer at all the same glass nor the same field of daisies,” he illustrates. Just moving an object or a look can renew life. »
The creator with a bubbling brain first exhibited his pink men in a Parisian shopping center, then in Lyon and Sweden. And now in Montreal, a destination that immediately appealed to him. “I said to myself that it was a godsend, because I know this city a little and I saw them immediately stand out because they are pink. And in Montreal, there is very little pink in space. It’s a bit gray-brown brown! » he laughs.
It is true that these lively sculptures stand out from the Montreal spring scene. Here near the large ring of Place Ville Marie, there with a basketball near the intersection of the two Hands. “It’s stories of vibration,” explains Philippe Katerine. “What I like is, for example, that you have one of the pink men climbing a wall at Place des Arts. And above all it creates fiction, we say to ourselves: “Where does he come from, where does he go, why does he end up there?” »
The artist, who is preparing a new album planned for the fall, specifies that each of the pieces designed in resin bears a scar on the heart. “Well, I had heart surgery when I was little, but we all have a heart scar, I think. » But Philippe Katerine immediately notes the fact that there are several influences in these Mr. Rose : links drawn “from my family, friends, pop starsor even from the world of cartoons like Sesame Street where the Barbapapa Also. »
“Cuteism”, believes Philippe Katerine, is not there to make people laugh – more to make people smile – but allows us to make the worst bearable. In our harsh world, can everything be made cute? Long silence and beard scratching. “I think everything is possible, everything is possible. All you have to do is change your gaze position. It might be playable. Even for the ignominy, the war. Yes, maybe there is a way to find something that would allow us to move towards peace. So here, I am ambitious! But I said maybe. »