The two artists have been given carte blanche; each in their own way asserts a strong and deeply personal link with non-Western arts, with the work and sensibility of artists and craftsmen, an intimacy with the works at the border between the visible and the invisible. The two artists chose works from the museum's collections to initiate a dialogue with their own creative process. The “invisible thoughts” exchanged between the artists and the holdings of the Musée Barbier-Mueller produce a new approach to the collections, offering visitors a fresh way of seeing: they will be surprised, astonished and perhaps confronted with their own invisible thoughts.
Painter, sculptor and engraver Zoé Ouvrier draws inspiration from non-Western artworks to create pieces imbued with spirituality. “I love this deep, sometimes mystical relationship that working with materials allows. Without comparing myself to African artists and craftsmen, I link my work to my feelings and I create my pieces without intellectualising them too much. Everything that comes from the ground (seeds, branches, leaves) challenges me and offers me a world.”
Arik Levy, sculptor, designer and visual artist, has selected four masks, a shield and a drum from the Barbier-Mueller collections, chosen for their symbolic and ritual power. He has cast these objects – which he believes contain secret powers, a magnetism that is the source of spirituality – in bronze. These pieces sometimes monumental divert their initial fragility to make them somehow timeless, even immortal. In addition, some twenty of his sculptures have been set in dialogue with pieces from the Barbier-Mueller collections and artworks by Zoé Ouvrier. According to Arik Levy, “Invisible thoughts are part of everyday life and social, collective or personal behaviour. They stimulate reflection, establish connections between works, artists and audiences. The juxtaposition, interaction and mixing between contemporary creations and works from the Barbier-Mueller collections create new paths, intellectual and creative, along which visitors are invited.” Invisible thoughts that have become visible, the thirty or so new pieces created by Zoé Ouvrier and Arik Levy are part of the renewed Barbier-Mueller collection for one year.