Christophe Mert

Ever since I was a child, I felt the urge to express myself through drawing. Over the years, the passion for drawing has given way to an externalisation of my feelings through painting. For some time, I mostly spoke about my environment (my family, the scenes of the Martinique cultural landscape). Then I wanted my painting to help me formulate my questions about my culture, my identity.Also began to appear in my works some references to Africa. Being in perpetual questioning, my introspection leads me to our Native American heritage, My quest for identity has allowed me to discover all the components that make up my people and to discredit that I belong to a multicultural society. Having realized that this plural identity was our strength and should be included in my work, I seek therefore by all means to make it visible in my work. For this, to produce a plural and balanced work, my supports, materials and techniques are multiple.Some colors also play a codified role in the composition of my work:yellow = energy; red = strength and dignity; white = ancestral; green = family and fertility; blue = knowledge.

Not wanting to lose sight that the painting is for me a mode of expression allowing me to ex-terioriser my feelings while having fun, I compose while moving from the abstract to the figurative one mixing with the other to create a harmony (man lé pran pié-mwen, é man ka pran'y!). My creation is shared between reflection, research and expression. Martinique in all its diversity is my primary source of inspiration. It is by discovering its history, by seeing myself as I am, that I was able to open my creation to the outside. I want thanks to the painting to communicate with the rest while favoring my Martinique origins. Because this country, by its complex course, offers me a very extensive cultural richness.For some years, a character in my work that I call “Marcaraïmôn", Martinique . Caribbean . World .

My multiple identity is thus affirmed in my composition with: the Martinique for roots, the Caribbean as trunk and the World for branches.

I work as I live: sincerely and fully. Thank you to Marcaraïmôn' for coming to me.