The exhibition draws inspiration from the first feminist futuristic novel, A Woman with Three Souls, written in 1918 by the Austro-Italian artist Rosa Rosà. This novel addresses issues of women’s emancipation and introduces the concept of the “woman of the day after tomorrow” as a manifesto opposing the patriarchal discourse of the leader of the futurist movement, Marinetti. The book – considered the first feminist science fiction text – follows the journey of Giorgina Rossi, a housewife propelled into the future through a temporal acceleration and then undergoing three successive transformations. These metamorphoses lead her to become aware of her sensuality and desires in the first place, then to liberate her speech and oratory skills, and finally, the third and last metamorphosis involves the realm of artistic creation, projecting the protagonist into a cosmic flight.

Thus, Adélaïde Feriot’s imposing velvet Aurora on Mars (2023) could come across as a result of this third transformation. The artwork, with its delicate shades of blue and purple inks, is an informal translation of a recently captured by N.A.S.A. sunset on Mars, unique for its blue hue. On the opposite wall is displayed a textile work titled U: voir des éléphants roses (2023), by Seulgi Lee. It is a lively geometric composition that appears quite different from Feriot’s blue Martian horizon but crystallizes the same inclination to engage with words and colors. Each blanket in the U series, started by the Korean-born artist in 2014, is an abstract translation of a popular proverb chosen for its humorous tones.

Beyond their joint role as translators, the two artists also share a strong appreciation for craftsmanship. So formally divergent and yet closely related, the exhibited works – from large textile pieces to woven baskets and taffeta lamps by Seulgi Lee, to Adélaïde Feriot’s bronze sculptures – have in common the hand as a tool. Upstairs in Artopia’s new exhibition space, Adélaïde Feriot’s bronze hands (Sur la crête des vagues, 2022) inhabit the wall in a spectral gesture and face the hundreds of small abstract sculptures made from colored metal wires (THINGS), 2023, designed by Seulgi Lee to be manipulated and held in hand.

The dialogue between these two French artists of the same generation generates what the curator defines as a narrative and engaged abstraction, able to combine primary abstract signs with ironic, social, and environmental aspects, asserting its transitive and decidedly contextual dimension.  The dream of artistic avant-gardes, where art and craftsmanship merge into one, seems to come true through these works.