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Inauguration of the exhibition « Arctic Twilight », pastels by Jean Malaurie
Bringing together a selection of pastels by Jean Malaurie, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in charge of Arctic polar issues, the exhibition also recalls his research work as an anthropo-geographer, in particular through the famous "Terre Humaine" collection, which he founded in 1951. To this day, it remains one of the most original publishing ventures in the description and understanding of human societies.
For some forty years, Jean Malaurie has been producing pastels illustrating his impressions and his vision of the polar world, particularly the polar night. His artistic vision is imbued with the teachings passed on to him by the Inuit people during his thirty-one expeditions: to know how to look, meditate and allow oneself to be penetrated by the force of nature.
The inauguration took place in the presence of around a hundred diplomats, fellow researchers, teachers and students from The Malaurie Institute of Arctic Research Monaco – UVSQ, and UNESCO Assistant Directors-General for Priority Africa and External Relations, Science, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, as well as members of Jean Malaurie's family.
Representing the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Vladimir Ryabinin, Assistant Director-General for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, paid tribute to Jean Malaurie's contributions as a spokesman for indigenous peoples threatened by the collapse of the cryosphere and rising sea levels, having mobilised the international community on these major issues supported by UNESCO for the future of the planet, and said:
With this exhibition, we discover Jean Malaurie's artistic verve and his personal and subjective view of the Arctic region. The pastels on display here bear witness to his great sensitivity, and his communion with the environment he has known and studied.
Professor Jan Borm, Director of The Malaurie Institute of Arctic Research Monaco – UVSQ, recalled the resounding cry that Jean Malaurie made in his Strasbourg appeal, published in his book Oser, Résister:
Cultural diversity is a scientific reality that must be protected as far as possible, just like biodiversity [...]. Otherwise, in our ever-expanding megacities, we will become a people of ants, manipulated by words and images.
Finally, Guillaume Malaurie, historian, and son of Jean Malaurie, spoke about the context in which these pastels were created and the connection with history that they evoke, saying:
In my father's pastels, there is no very explicit human or animal life. Rather, they should be seen as the jaws of life itself: below, the molars of hard rock and above, the soft skies mixed with the colors of dawn. It is from this trituration, when the jaw closes, that he sees boreal life. My father is a geologist. A geomorphologist, in fact, who takes charge of the slow perpetual tectonic and sedimentary movement of minerals. My father has always enjoyed settling into the infinitely long time that humbles and inspires solitude. For him, a stone is not dead. It densifies life. When she returned to the land of her choice, where she would die, on the American island of Mont-Deserts in Maine, Marguerite Yourcenar had this to say: it was "the moment when geology, for me, took precedence over history".
The "Arctic Twlight" exhibition coincides with the centenary of Jean Malaurie's birth.
