Benoit + Bo = France + China

 I met the two artists not so much time ago, I was struck, aroused by the enthusiasm of their approach and the happiness which perspires out of their artwork. Wow! I told myself, what a feat! XXI art which corresponds to the great tradition in a new way, a modern face of an old fever! Art should inspire happiness, contribute to well-being, enhance our daily life, adhere to a social function of harmony between man and nature, between soul and soul and - ultimate function –a bridge to the spirit. See the work of B+B and enjoy…one is transported into a new world. But there is much more in their Art than simple enjoyment. Go deeper and you will see how much irony and subtlety was needed to generate the work. “Love Geography” is a contemporary anamorphosis; in the past centuries both in Europe and Chine the artists where fascinated by “the landscapes of the mind”, correspondences between towns and the errands of the mind of human beings when influenced by the various feelings. Therefore a wandering soul can be compared to a geographic searching the way on a map, or reconstructing the network of streets and plazas and rivers and mountains out of the memory – well before the aerial views so easily available today. The view of the Italian Capri island by B+B is a psychoanalytic lesson; the streets and the other places have been renamed, after the chain of feelings which the famous island evokes in the mind of the artists. Another map reconstructed is “ideal city” which reinterpretes symbolically that Renaissance concept: also here, streets and other landmarks have been renamed after the universe of natures pertaining to “love” (hence the exhibition’s name). When I mentioned “irony”, I had in mind exactly their work of art; the itinerary of a voyage consists of a stop at the Excitement Street before touching the Temptation Law Court, perhaps avoiding the Lips Prison but with an eye on Touch Me Library. This is Art which one would indeed like to hang at home or in the office, and let the imagination runs as a pause from the quotidian cares of everyday life.