Safe Spaces: Sophia Andreotti and Edouard Baribeaud

9 November - 20 December

Safe Spaces
Sophia Andreotti and Edouard Baribeaud
Edouard Baribeaud

Edouard Baribeaud (B. 1984, Versailles) studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from which he graduated in 2008. Since 2009, the French-German artist has been living and working in Berlin. While his artistic practice spans accross various mediums Baribeaud favours drawing and painting. Among the artist's diverse sources of inspiration are the great masters of the Italian Renaissance, the world of theatre and film, and the delicate art of Indian miniature paintings. Since 2015, he has been collaborating regularly with Hermès for whom he designs silk scarves. Baribeaud's first monograph was published by Hatje-Cantz in 2016.
- Solo exhibitions include Safe Places (as an artist duo with Sophie Andreoti), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2022); Es war Einmal…, Galerie Friese, Berlin (2022); Image Fantomes, Yishu 8, Maison des Arts, Beijing (2019); An Old Story for Our Modern Times, Galerie Judin, Berlin (2018); The Nocturnal Vault, Isa Galerie, Mumbai (2016); The Hour of the Gods, Galerie Judin, Berlin (2015); Sao Jorge, Reh Kunst, Berlin (2012); Hic Sunt Leones, Nolan Judin, Berlin (2012); Der Flug der Eule, Galerie Tat, Berlin (2011); Brume d’espace, Galerie du Crous, Paris (2011).
  
  Selected group exhibitions include Safe Spaces, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2022); Legends, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2021); 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Galerie Isa 9, Mumbai, India (2021); Edouard Baribeaud - Louise Despont - Marcel Dzama - Chris Ofili, Isa galerie, Mumbai (2020); Auf dem Weg zum Motiv. Zeitgenössische Kunstler treffen auf Willi ̈ Baumeister, Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese, Berlin (2019); Hermès Carré Club, Hermès, Los Angeles (2018); Hermès Carré Club, Hermès, New York (2018); Between The Worlds, XXII. Rohkunstbau, Berlin (2016); Vexillology#2, Kunstverein Amrum, Germany (2016); DEVOUR! Sozialer Kannibalismus, politische Neudefinierung und Architektur, Freies Museum/ SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2015); Mauvaises Graines, Topographie de l'art, Paris (2014); Le bruit du dessin, Villa du Parc – Centre d’art contemporain, Annemasse, France (2012); Edouard Baribeaud & Chris Johnson, Pavillon Blanc – Centre d’art de Colomiers/ Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France (2011); Artist Books, PR1 Gallery, Preston, United Kingdom (2010).
- Highlights and residences
  Edouard Baribeaud is a recipient of numerous awards including the Yishu 8 Art prize, Beijing (2019). In addition, in 2019 he received an artist residency at Maison des Arts - Yishu 8, Beijing, and in 2010 he received an artist residency at Schloss Plüschow - Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus. Together Edouard Baribeaud and Sophia Andreotti created a capsule collection of accessories for the menswear brand Drake’s in 2019 and a silk scarf (Carré “Le Premier Chant”) for the French luxury brand Hermès in 2021. Edouard's work is part of the Public Collection of Gil Andreas Bronmenr, Dusseldorf as well as Kunstgewerbemuseum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Germany; Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium; Yishu 8, Paris and Beijing; Schloss Plüshow, Mecklenburgisches Künstlerhaus, Germany; The Hermès private collection, France and Drake's collection.
Sophia Andreotti

Sophia Andreotti ( B. 1987, Reims, France) is based in Berlin. Andreotti graduated in German Studies and Journalism from the University of Sorbonne in Paris in 2012. Sophia Andreotti and Edouard Baribeaud have been working together as an artist couple since 2018. Alongside to her work as a journalist, Sophia Andreotti has started a career as a self- taught artist in 2018. She developed painting and drawing skills by taking art courses in Berlin and working together with her partner Edouard Baribeaud in their shared studio in Berlin. The two artists get their inspiration from their readings, travels, encounters and everyday life observations. Their works aim to create a poetic and romantic universe which would reflect the social evolutions and the challenges of our present time.
- Solo exhibitions include Safe spaces (as an artist duo with Edouard Baribeaud), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2022).
  
  Group exhibitions include Legends, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2021).
- Highlights and collections
  Together Edouard Baribeaud and Sophia Andreotti created a capsule collection of accessories for the menswear brand Drake’s in 2019 and a silk scarf (Carré “Le Premier Chant”) for the French luxury brand Hermès in 2021. Edouard and Sophia’s work is part of Hermes private Collection.
Safe Spaces
- When do you find time to daydream and rest? When do you feel most free? Safe Spaces, Edouard Baribeaud and Sophia Andreotti’sfirst solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, was born out of an intense period of introspection, prompted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns while also reflecting on their experiences of living and working together as a married couple and artist duo. The resulting series of delicate watercolour paintings, capturing moments of intimacy and repose, explore notions of healing, care and autonomy.
  
  Edouard and Sophia’s collaborative process is best described as a continuous creative dialogue. They share their lives as well as their studio space and see no division between the parts they each play in making the work. ‘People often want us to clearly define what each of us do,’ explains Edouard. ‘In the past, Sophia, as a woman, has been positioned as a muse, but that’s a very limiting perspective. We each inspire each other; ideas flow between us.’ The works in this series pay tribute to that trust and mutual admiration while also playing with traditional power dynamics in order to open up more fluid ways of seeing.
  
  Though there are several portraits of Sophia in which she appears nude, they depict moments of deep internal reflection or turmoil, while the works depicting Edouard are both more sensual and exposing. In one painting, for example, we encounter Edouard lying on a sun bed. He is at rest with his eyes closed, but his pose – with one arm bent up behind his head and his hand resting over his crotch – appears somewhat staged, while the bird’s eye perspective and flat green background create a slightly surreal or even uncanny atmosphere. In this way, the painting draws our attention to the politics of representation. Edouard’s pose recalls countless depictions of the female nude throughout art history, positioning him – the male figure, the ‘conventional artist’ – as the muse, deified as a passive object in the gleaming spotlight of the sun. Meanwhile, Sophia, in the painting The Two of Us, appears almost defiant in her refusal to perform for the gaze. She is naked, seated in a slumped position, her head turned away and eyes downcast. Here, the light that falls across the front of her body has a more subdued, almost wavering quality suggestive of an internal space and an atmosphere of melancholy.
- Indeed, many of these works reflect on a period of intense struggle. Five years ago, Sophia was diagnosed with a chronic thyroid disease which has had a huge impact both physically and emotionally. ‘I didn’t feel safe in my body any more,’ she says. ‘I had to learn to rest and to be tolerant with myself which can be difficult in a world that often measures success through productivity.’ As a result, she and Edouard found themselves discovering new beauty in moments of stillness and calm. In one work, we glimpse a chef lying on his side on the doorstep of a building, seemingly enjoying a brief moment of peace, while in another a man in a cafe stares into the middle distance, momentarily carried away into a world of his own.
  
  The most evocative works, however, are those set in the couple’s intimate, domestic spaces. The painting A Sunday Afternoon captures Edouard lying naked on his side with his back to us, his head propped up by his hand as he gazes out of the window at the bare silhouettes of trees. The room is filled with a soft, rose-tinted glow as if the sun, beyond the frame of the painting, is setting in the distance while tactile details – the curves of his body, the creases of the bed sheets – add to a dreamy sense of languor that pervades throughout the series. As with all of the works, the scene is painted in watercolour on rice paper, which the couple brought back with them from China following an artists’ residency. The pigments of watercolour paints react in a different way to the rice paper than the traditional medium of ink, by diffusing across the surface and creating an almost hazy effect. The paper itself is incredibly thin, but the artists have stuck each piece onto a stretched canvas, creating an interplay between the different materialities – ephemerality and durability, translucency and opacity – that’s emphasised by the borders of raw linen. As Sophia notes, ‘The works are caught between two mediums – drawing and painting – just as the scenes depict the moments between activity and inactivity.’
  
  This duality is central not only to these paintings, but also to the couple’s approach to making art. A feeling of safety is found, they seem to say, not in imposed definitions or fixed boundaries, but in fluid spaces, in creativity and love, in the quiet moments we snatch for ourselves and share with others.
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- Edouard Baribeaud & Sophia Andreotti, The Witch House , 2022

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Safe Spaces: Sophia Andreotti and Edouard Baribeaud

Safe Spaces

Edouard Baribeaud

Sophia Andreotti

Safe Spaces

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