Anide is a painter who has long ignored himself. His career reflects this indeterminacy, which has become the very foundation of his practice. Born in Savoie, he began his career studying in communications, originally driven by a deep interest in language and its potential. This approach, nourished in particular by the writings of Carl Gustav Jung the shadowy areas where meaning and expression meet. His career began in communications, where he worked as a freelancer, before taking a decisive turn in 2018: he left everything behind to settle in London.
In the bustle of East London, camera in hand, he makes friends with the queer and alternative communities, he photographs, capturing the raw, avant-garde poetry of these circles. These encounters nurtured his taste for art and fashion, as he wandered museums and galleries, not only to contemplate the works, but also and above all to observe the spectators in their silent dialogue with them. An introspective begins: Anide unveils a first series of photographs in a confidential setting , reflecting on the role of the observer and identity.
Back in France, he was carried away by this London energy, with a desire to translate the between self and the other. He gives life to Marta, a mythological alter ego to whom he lends attributes and a lexical field of her own. Marta is not just a character, she becomes a costume, a “safe place” that others are invited to inhabit. In this way, Anide questions dissociation within unity, the space where identity and otherness merge. Yet this performative project, which he describes as “too soon to bear”,leaves him unsatisfied."I wanted to get my hands dirty.I didn't like the posture of observer, of clean hands behind the camera."
It was in painting that Anide found an answer. It all began with a spontaneous gesture, buying pure pigments and mixing them, experimenting with the alchemy of texture and material. while at the same time he keeps taking photos of the stains he sees in the street in an attempt to translate them pictorially.
In 2021, his career took a decisive turn. Spotted by a Lyon-based gallery owner specialized in contemporary graphic countercultures, he received a proposal for a solo exhibition scheduled for October. As he immersed himself in the preparations, a seminal experience redefined his artistic practice: watching a friend painting in oils in a Lyonnais atelier, he's fascinated by the sensuality of the medium and its new alchemy. He devoted himself fervently to it, and it was in this pictorial language that he first exhibited his oil paintings for the first time.
After this experience, Anide felt the need to immerse himself in an intimate exploration. In early 2022, he moved to Berlin, where he devoted himself exclusively to painting. This city, which he sees as “a dance with its demons”, contrasts with the sublime Savoie's landscapes , to which he returns regularly to lose himself in the forest. This dialogue between the urban and the natural feeds his work, where spaces he describes as “profane” and “sacred” meet.
Between Berlin, London and now Paris, where he will settle at the end of 2024, Anide weaves a path made up of ruptures encounters and experiments. For him, Paris has become a point of where his questions about memory, identity and what, in art, transcends the visible, intersect. transcends the visible to “summon the essence of the sacred”.
Extract from the text by Anne Laure Peressin
( translated by Hors-Cadre Gallery)