Cryptgame Vol.1

01/02/2024 Cryptgame in Marseille Curated by Jean-Baptiste Janisset Scenography by Olivier Cauet Text by Alexia Abed Cryptgame is an escape game set in a magical fantasy realm simulating the world of Harry Potter. Onto this immersive maze is overlaid the group show Cryptgame. Thirty artists, mostly based in Marseille, decide to come together, inspired by the analogies between craft and witchcraft. Incantation from a scene that aspires to define itself, Cryptgame maps our reciprocal influences, emotional alliances, interpersonal stories, and collective quests. The works, connected by a magical-mystical aesthetic, seem to renounce confronting reality. Figuration is disguised in favor of an esoteric reading of the world: occult symbols, bizarre forms, and creatures, sometimes hostile, enchanted, or both.Thus, Cryptgame opens portals to elsewhere, like so many escape strategies. What are we trying to escape from? Does the question alone suffice to generate a sense of community? We do not know. Behind the humor and derision, the very existence of such a massive turbo-exhibition reveals a thick mystery that institutions and public authorities in the South jointly refuse to solve: where are our places of socialization, production, and exhibition? To overcome this lack, today we must take diagonally. list of artists : 1express, Alain Barthélémy, Gillian Brett, Julia Bonich, Louise Belin, Juliet Casella, Stéphanie Cherpin, Delphine Dénéréaz, Clara Duflot, Dejode & Lacombe, El Guelay & Arouimi, Joshua Leterreux, Alexandre Espagnol, Cédric Esturillo, Gouret & Lejeune, Matthieu Haberard, Titouan Makeïev, Opale Mirman, Antoine Nessi, Matthias Odin, Paul Paillet, Gaspard Postal, Jimmy Richer, Karine Rougier, Brontë Scott, Ugo Schiavi, Lise Stoufflet, Romain Vicari, Victor Yudaev