Exhibition: CalligraVie Le Patronage Laïque Jules-Vallès, September 24, 2022, Paris.
Saturday, September 24, 2022
from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
. free
Exhibition visible from September 12 to September 24, 2022. Opening on September 24.
CalligraVie is not just a word game, uniting the words calligraphy and life. It is above all a concept, an idea that was born from the practice and teaching of an art, that of calligraphy. Rich in its tradition, calligraphy is an art that combines rigor and freedom: rigor, because its practice results from a long and rigorous learning of a style and its rules, freedom, because it is the expression of the sensitive in a quest for aesthetics where poetry and spirituality meet. In essence, calligraphy is the art of writing well, but does not depart from its meaning: each line, each line thickness, each letter stretch, each dot contributes to the balance of the work, poetizes and magnifies the message they convey. Like a musical score, harmony is also at stake: scrolls and rounded shapes balance each other, while respecting a rhythm. This rhythm is the one instilled by the calligrapher. The latter uses its energy by adopting a posture. He fixes his concentration through his breathing, where his inspirations and expirations mark the tempo. Equipped with his pen, rare quality paper and ink, he works. Like a musician doing his scales, he rehearses while aspiring to reach perfection in the layout of letters, words… He becomes a composer when he produces a text, a poem, a composition. Having in memory and as a model the master who initiated him, he is the holder of a tradition, that of an ancestral art, the practice of which is anchored in the respect of fundamental principles. Calligraphy relies on slowness to allow the calligrapher to develop his concentration and patience skills. Thus, carrier of serenity and tranquility, it promotes stability and inner balance. And, as it requires regularity, it is in fact structuring. All these virtues contribute to the elevation of the individual. This is how it fits into our contemporary life, because the qualities that its practice promotes are essential and necessary in everyone’s daily life. Moreover, it encourages sharing and openness to others. She also finds her way in the new dimensions that contemporary art allows. The horizon of his modes of expression has widened, as illustrated by the plastic arts and the interaction between calligraphy and music. Calligraphy is therefore a way of life where art, spirituality and philosophy are inseparable and interact in the same temporality. And since calligraphy is a living art that finds its place in today’s world and that it influences, even shapes the personality of those who practice it, CalligraVie has imposed itself as the title for this exhibition.
Iranian artist, Bahman Panahi was born in 1967. He is a visual artist, master calligrapher and musician. From his early childhood, he was sensitive to the calligraphy that punctuated his environment. His first calligraphic gesture is aerial: a line in space. At a very young age, he became aware that calligraphy is a living art, where the gesture combined with rhythm is a quest for balance and just harmony, with the function of sublimating sentences, words and letters, while revealing their melodious dimension. This poetic conception will naturally lead him to resonate calligraphy and music. Carried by these two artistic practices, he made it his vocation. As a teenager, he devoted his studies to it. He is instructed by the great Iranian Masters. At the age of nineteen, he began to teach calligraphy: he became a Master Calligrapher, and moreover a musician. His studies took him to France, where he deepened his research and developed the concept of “Musicalligraphy” in his doctoral thesis at the University of the Sorbonne. In his work, Bahman Panahi never ceases to highlight this conceptual dimension of calligraphy. This work, made up of traditional or abstract calligraphic compositions, allows him to travel: exhibitions, concerts, artistic performances around the world, exchanges with international artists punctuate Bahman Panahi’s life and give him international notoriety. He continues at the same time to teach calligraphy. Throughout the world, he teaches courses, leads workshops and gives conferences in prestigious places. Thus, in the wake of his teaching, a school of calligraphy was informally formed, bringing together the students he initiated.
The Jules-Vallès Secular Patronage 72 avenue Félix Faure 75015 Paris
Contact: 01 40 60 86 00 ecrire@patronagelaique.fr
Bahman Panahi Bahman Panahi