Rosa Maria Unda Souki – Angle Londres et Allende (1937-1954)

17.09 – 31.10 /2015

“Why would I want feet when I have wings to fly?”
Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo’s life can be contained almost entirely in that sentence. On damaged legs she passed through the different aspects of her life and history, often filled with incredible violence, guided by a life force one only rarely encounters.

This statement is in fact a portrait of Frida Kahlo herself, vitally both woman and artist, that Rosa Maria Unda Souki set out to paint by telling the story of the Casa Azul, the house she lived in her whole life.
For Rosa, residing somewhere isn’t only about investing a space or simply being in one place as opposed to another. It involves daily rituals, inventing a habitat, the development of memory and the building of a world that protects and sets the basis to venture into the outside world. Thus a house is the mould of its inhabitant, a refuge and a place for intimacy. It is the cross point from which all roads start and to which all roads lead. It is home.
And we will see that by telling the story of this extraordinary house and its even more extraordinary inhabitants, it is, in a way, her own story as an artist and as a woman that Rosa is depicting.
Of Venezuelan origin, Rosa studies fine arts in Brazil and arrives in France in 2004. That same year she wins the Prix Signatures created in 1959 by André Malraux. In Paris Rosa is inspired by the creative and artistic environment and soon her work is recognized in Europe.

In 2010 the Casa Museo Federico Garcia Lorca houses a solo exhibition of paintings on the life and work of the poet, who has a profound  influence on Rosa an as artist.
In 2011 Rosa at the 56th Salon D’Art Contemporain de Montrouge – when Stéphane Corréart was president – and wins the prestigious Prix Spécial du Jury presided by Antoine de Galbert, founder and president of la Maison Rouge. As the winner of the Salon de Montrouge, Rosa presents “Expropriation” at the Palais de Tokyo (november 2011) and represents France at the Biennale Itinérante Jeune Création Européenne (JCE) between 2011 and 2013.
She begins to work on her project about Frida Kahlo on 2011 and is able to present the two first parts of the this huge work two years later; they are, this same year, exposed at the French Institute os Spain in Madrid – support of the project, as well as the Frida Kahlo Museum of Mexico. At this occasion, a article is written in Art Press (N° 407, january 2014) by Anaël Prigeat — redactor in chief of the magazine.
In 2014 Rosa is nominated  for the Fonds Canson and wins the Prix Colas.

It is thus the third part of a great fresco about the Casa azul – deep reflexion on two crossed women destinies –, that we have the pleasure and honour to present to you today at the Dukan Gallery.