Aureil Patrick Bessan (patricorel) - (1990) - Untitled

Born in 1990 in Cotonou, Aureil Patrick BESSAN known as Patricorel is a young Beninese visual artist who practices sculpture, painting, drawing and installation. After his master's degree in Art History at the University of Abomey Calavi, he focused his research in the field of recovery art and the misappropriation of objects. He finds pleasure in recycling glass bottles, wood and dead leaves that he collects from the streets, from garbage heaps and from trash cans. Ingeniously, he succeeds in diverting wine bottles from their primitive functions to offer new works of great originality and very striking visual force. They give them life and nobility again. He establishes an analogy between the fragility of bottles and the nature of men which also lacks resistance. In each of his sculptures, there is an alloy between tradition and modernity. His great inventiveness, his particular humor and his keen sense of observation will come together and contribute to the creation of his unique style. Immediately, his remarkable work on glass bottles attracted the attention of the public and the art world. He has been selected to participate in group and individual exhibitions and artistic residencies in Africa and Europe. Always in search of new artistic expressions, he is currently exploring a rather original technique which consists of transforming recycled plastic bags into plastic supports on which he draws, writes, describes, scribbles to give birth to characters with very expressive faces. We don't see the skin, we only see bones, we can easily immerse ourselves inside the bodies, walk around, get lost, in a sort of Labyrinth. Removing skin color is for him a way of denouncing racism, of talking about equality, of the finitude of man. His resolutely conscious, committed art is a strong sign for a liberated, fraternal, open and creative Africa.

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