The 5th Art Brut Biennale will present a new aspect of the many works belonging to the Art Brut Collection. Devoted to the theme of Beliefs, it will reveal the special connection that Art Brut artists enjoy with both religion and the occult sciences.
Several of the artists depict traditional religious subjects, reinterpreting them and appropriating their rituals. Others invent a doctrine of their own and, like almighty demiurges, they integrate their works into a new confession, using them to support prophecies or to ward off bad luck. As for the many spiritists and mediums who assure us they are in touch with the beyond, they create under the direct influence of spirits, ghosts, or supernatural forces, and deny the authorship of their works.
Thanks to their unique beliefs, these artists are all capable of transcendence, each in his own way, even while living in conditions that are often very difficult. This selection of works will include portraits of deities and of religious figures, extremely refined abstract compositions, symbolist paintings, and ritual objects.
Sarah Lombardi has been Director of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne since 2013. She is an art historian and a graduate of the University of Lausanne, and has worked as a freelance exhibition curator. Between 2007 and 2013 she was a curator and then acting director at the Collection de l’Art Brut. She has published several books concerning the Collection’s exhibitions and has written articles on Art Brut for exhibition catalogues and art journals. In 2013, she launched the Art Brut Biennales, exhibitions centered around a specific theme and based solely on the museum’s collections, as well as a new series of bilingual publications titled Art Brut, la Collection – Art Brut, the Collection.