PARIS
DECEMBER 13 - DECEMBER 22, 2023
As the winner of the 7th edition of Prix Paritana, Ashiko Ratovo has been offered a three-month residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris,where she is developing her Tsy manan-kialofana [Homeless] project.
During her creative residency, Ashiko Ratovo experiments with different media. She uses a combination of watercolor and acrylic to depict abstract, organic landscapes,which are reminiscent of a shelter forest or a fireplace that sparks an ambiguous yearning to hide in while, at the same time, feeling an urge to flee from it. Ashiko Ratovo’s research led to the creation of Halam’patana [Fireplace],a set of four paintings depicting clothes hung on washing lines. The image of clothes being hung out to dry implies that the houses are occupied and marks the establishment of persons in the Malagasy society.
Textiles hold a central place in Madagascar both in terms of the tradition of weaving and the actual use of textile products. The lamba, a traditional woven piece, is ever-present in all the stages of the lives of Malagasy people, from birth to death. It has become a second skin, a protection that once again reminds theartist of the idea of a shelter.
Beyond the representation of textiles in her paintings, Ashiko Ratovo directly integrates textile fibers in a new research project based on plastic: Hanafotra [Submerging]. This series is made up of several pieces whose metal-wire structure —echoing the wires used to hang laundry— is coated with a brittle, fragile clay supported by a heap of wool and cotton threads.
BIOGRAPHY OF ASHIKO RATOVO
Ashiko Ratovo, born in 1998 in Antananarivo (Madagascar) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist. She is the winner of the 7th edition of Fondation H’s Prix Paritana. Since its creation in 2017, Prix Paritana has been supporting Madagascar’s art scene (artists of Malagasy nationality and foreign artists living in Madagascar) through the organization of a contemporary art prize that is awarded to three artists each year.
After obtaining her high-school diploma in 2017, she enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in social psychology at the University of Aix-Marseille. Alongside her studies, Ashiko Ratovo has been painting, first with watercolors, then with acrylics. Curious about the multiplicity of supports and mediums, she gradually integrated sculpture and embroidery into her practice. In 2022, she took Fondation H’s Ainga training, a program designed to provide artists with a solid theoretical and practical knowledge on planning and developing their artistic careers. During the same period, Ashiko Ratovo created her own brand of hundred percent natural watercolors: Lokorano (water paint in Malagasy). That same year, she entered the bachelor of fine arts program at Paris Panthéon Sorbonne. Her work was presented for the first time at her solo exhibition: Vohitrin’ny Nofy [Hamlet of Dreams] at Art’Home Ankadilalana, Antananarivo in October2022.
In 2023,Ashiko Ratovo won the 7th edition of Prix Paritana. She was offered a three-month residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, where she developed her Tsy manan-kialofana [Homeless] project. The same year, the French Ministry of Culture awarded her the Prix Création Africa for her animation project co-created with Malagasy director Dina Nomena Andriarimanjaka, vice-winner of the 7th edition of Prix Paritana.