MEILLEURS VOEUX DE LA JAMAÏQUE
MRAC OCCITANIE, SERIGNAN, FRANCE
APRIL 16 — SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

What really happened during their residency in Jamaica? The artist couple Mrzyk & Moriceau remain very vague about the six months they spent in this Caribbean island state, even if by their own admission they did not return unscathed from this adventure. Rumors are rife.

The immersive exhibition Best Wishes from Jamaica is the fruit of this residency, which suggests many stories. The first is about a Taximan they met at Kingston airport, a very elegant man in purple moccasins with whom they quickly struck up a friendship. He confided in them that he was also a shaman and had the ability to see the future in «Jerk Chicken» sauce. Naturally, our two artists, eager to learn more about their careers, gave a ticket to this shaman who had fallen from the sky and revealed something incredible: they were going to abandon the pencil to draw with a jigsaw. Thanks to a second ticket, they understood a little better the meaning of this sentence: they would have to create a composition of light walls, a long snake of screens composed of cut-out drawings. A snake with two sides, one composed like a marabou of strange motifs and the other black, all ominous silhouettes. The very next day, they bought a jigsaw.

In the course of their stay, Mrzyk & Moriceau discovered that many Jamaicans, in exchange for a few bucks, were gifted with clairvoyance, using ever-changing methods. And so it was that an ageless old lady, meticulously observing their hems, revealed to them that a magic seed was hidden in a second-hand remote control at the Annotto Bay flea market. She advised them to find the seed. A ska renter saw through a bubble of chewing gum to a subdivision where children play underground: a subdivision of cigarette butts. Or, looking at the shadow of his hutia, a little boy alerted them to the risk of a fatal scuba dive involving defective flipper moccasins, to be avoided at all costs during their stay. A band of mussels also had a vision in exchange for a few cigarettes: caution, artists had to be very careful about the choice of pins they used to hang their drawings. Some were bewitched and could contaminate the paper. As a result, these molds advised them to use Jamaican Patafix, a useful multi-purpose paste. The cross-section of a QR code hair also told us a lot about the future of our artistic couple. The ceiling absolutely had to be raised, the screens were growing in. The predictions were getting stranger and stranger...

In addition to these Jamaican visions, Mrzyk & Moriceau slept very badly. At night, wild effects of scale, matter, superimposition and perspective would prowl around their house, trying to get in. The couple had to remain constantly vigilant. And then there was always that strange sensation of being watched by a duck. The abuse of local produce helped them to better understand the significance of these omens and events. In a cave lined with phosphorescent moss made of natural 15G, an encounter with an earthworm was decisive in the outcome of events. He advised them to protect themselves from the evil eye by putting on a number of colorfully patterned socks. Mrzyk & Moriceau did just that. Their feet were now very hot, but they were safe from the real world. Strangely enough, the Jamaicans’ predictions were declining along with the residency grant, the artists were running dry and the Jamaicans could see nothing in the future. They began to doubt the veracity of all these visions. Everything became coherent. They were going to tell the story of the creation of the universe in a cartoon.

© André Morin