We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.
If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website.

MARQUESAS


2017-2018

Tommo et Toby, Étude

Oil on paper (detail)

Titouan header arrow
Back to travels
MARQUESAS
2017-2018

Travellers from the past

“Let’s not pride ourselves on assimilating customs, nations, others; but on the contrary, let’s rejoice that we can never do so…”

Victor Segalen, Essai sur l’exotisme (Essay on exoticism)

Abstracts

"In the course of this imaginary crossing of the Studio Boat, I have taken pleasure in conjuring up scenes of encounters with Stevenson, London, Gauguin and Segalen in the Marquesas. You really have to admit that it’s astonishing how these four figures (preceded by Melville) all visited what is described as the 'world’s most isolated' spot – without ever coming across one another – over a period of about twenty years, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

(…) We cannot suspect the voyages of Segalen, Gauguin or London of being motivated by notions of imperialism or profit; and I might add that I’m extremely grateful to them for helping to shake up my adolescent brain. They all abhorred colonial administration and kept the ecclesiastical mob at a distance.

(…) And yet, no doubt in spite of themselves, what remains from a reading their works sometimes merges, in our minds, with the impressions left behind by those pimps of exoticism who Segalen in fact denounced."

Extract from L'Errance et le Divers, 2018, Éditions Gallimard

Works

MARQUESAS 4105
Tommo et Toby, Étude, 2018

Atelier
Oil on paper
56 x 76 cm

MARQUESAS 4180
Oviri Tusitala, 2018

Atelier
Oil on canvas
171 x 108 cm

MARQUESAS 4183
Oviri Tusitala 2, 2018

Atelier
Oil on canvas
171 x 108 cm

MARQUESAS 4099
Faïaoahé, 2018

Atelier
Oil on paper
103 x 76 cm

MARQUESAS 4107
Victor Segalen, 2017

Atelier
Oil on canvas
76 x 56 cm

Maps

MARQUESAS 4096
MARQUESAS 4178

Making-of

Illustration Making Of
Titouan in his workshop, 2018

© Alexis Lambotte

Film by Zoé Lamazou

Image and sound: Gwenaël Le Bras

Books

Back to top