SOLO

exhibition

“I express life which, like my island, always remains to defend from what hinders it, gangrenes it, debases it.”

Jules Franck Mondoloni, born in Pitretu, Corsica on July 2, 1947, is a French artist, sculptor, painter, book illustrator, photographer, and poet who lives and works in Porto Pollo, Corsica. His works are featured in the permanent collections of Musée Rimbaud, Musée Archéologique de Filitosa, and le Musée National du Sport in Nice.

I had drawn all the doors of the ramparts of Marrakech in Morocco. I had specially made for this painting "the Agdal door with eucalyptus," by a Marrakech craftsman, a frame in cedar wood from the Rif. Another craftsman had painted, at my request, the floral décor according to my choice of colors and patterns.

Mondoloni’s esteem for his native Corsica is a theme that runs through much of his work. He illustrates the impressive panoramas between sea and mountains, the splendors of its still wild maquis, a reserve of fauna and flora, many of which are endemic to the islands.

Ciel rouge

Acrylic

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Isolated in the dunes of southern Tunisia, these are modest earthen houses. The children ran to meet me while the women hid.

Mondoloni’s second language is French, his mother language is Pumuntincu, which is of bas Latin origin. He has communicated his passion for Corsican mythology through ink illustrations, “bandes dessinées.” As a sculptor, he bears a soul that has been forged by the multi-millennia tradition of the sculptors of stone megaliths from his native island.

Eclectic and polymorphic, Mondoloni’s work is that of a man curious about everything, who says to himself: "this is interesting, and that is interesting, and I'm going to use it all.”

In Jules Franck Mondoloni’s works, he portrays life and the diversity of its kingdoms with strength and grace. His art reveals the unfathomable amplitude of nature’s perspectives and various shades full of inexhaustible epiphanies. Mondoloni's work is naturally inspired by the grandiose and untamed beauty of his island. He expresses life which, like his island, always remains to defend from what hinders it, gangrenes it, debases it. His art is used for this purpose: to exalt, eroticize, subvert, halo, and transcend. This transmission preoccupies him, he becomes the ardent servant of it, devoted and unfailing. Art, he knows, is the privileged channel to reach, cultivate and reconquer a quality of intoxication and emancipation. Eclectic and polymorphic, Mondoloni’s work is that of a man curious about everything, who says to himself: "this is interesting, and that is interesting, and I'm going to use it all.”

What connects the artworks in this exhibition is that Mondoloni’s work has been profoundly influenced by the nuances of color and light, as a poet creates nuances with words. In poetry you’re allowed to say what you want; there is poetic license to create symbols in any pattern, just like with a painting.

Mondoloni’s work seeks to preserve the natural and free state of his island. The defenders of the Corsican coast are trying to stop the artificialization of it. The island is quite small and much of it has become populated with barely occupied vacation homes, which take up space where there was once nature. The public domain has been privatized and the sea is being blocked by concrete structures. Where once the flowering plants called Posidonia sheltered a multitude of fish and seahorses, the rockfill for the docks for the boats in the marina have crushed everything.

Jules Franck Mondoloni’s art reveals the unfathomable amplitude of nature’s perspectives and various shades full of inexhaustible epiphanies. Mondoloni's work is naturally inspired by the grandiose and untamed beauty of his island.

What connects the artworks in this exhibition is that Mondoloni’s work has been profoundly influenced by the nuances of color and light, as a poet creates nuances with words. In poetry you’re allowed to say what you want; there is poetic license to create symbols in any pattern, just like with a painting. Photographs are the study of the mysteries of light, not just a snapshot of a particular moment that impresses him or a memory.