BLUM is pleased to present an exhibition of work by pascALEjandro—the creation of artists Alejandro Jodorowsky and Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky. This will be pascALEjandro’s second exhibition with the gallery.
With more than twenty otherworldly vignettes—each work, its own story—ANOTHER WORLD is truly transportive. pascALEjandro, a project both existential and artistic, is the love child of two artists who are separated in age by over forty years. Manifesting in extraordinary works on paper, the collaboration is comprised of the masculine, Jodorowsky’s distinctive illustrations, and the feminine, Montandon-Jodorowsky’s vividly painted colors. For this new series, the pair have also added objects to their otherwise flat surfaces, thus literally introducing a new dimension to their narratives. Built from the love, light, and kindness that these two artists foster and share, this work puts forth a brand-new entity—creating a third body from the abundance of inspiration and imagination that is imperative to the overlap of the first two.
Trained as a painter with a dedicated practice for the last twenty-five years, Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky’s work also traverses the mediums of photography and stage and costume design. Alejandro Jodorowsky has been at the forefront of every genre he has engaged with—from poetry to graphic novels, theater, and cinema. His cult classic, The Holy Mountain (1973), was produced by Allen Klein with additional support from John Lennon, and the term “midnight movie” was coined after his 1970 film El Topo. His unrealized film Dune has been acknowledged as “the most famous movie never made” and was the subject of an award-winning documentary in 2013.
Pascale and Alejandro create the union pascALEjandro. Paranormal creatures and mystical lovers dance between life and death; human beings, young and old, from East and West, bring the viewer into a world of extraordinary richness and powerful sensory states. These works together are a manifesto of the artists’ uncompromising love and absolute sincerity, as well as an invitation to others to participate in this world of poetry and magic they’ve developed. pascALEjandro states, “Our working material is the material of our lives. No critical or destructive art: it’s the portion of sublimity that actually exists in all human beings and in reality. pascALEjandro is the synthesis of two beings, who form alchemy’s androgynous union.”
This exhibition will open alongside Alejandro Jodorowsky: An American Cinematheque Retrospective at the Egyptian Theatre, Friday, May 17–Sunday, May 19, 2024.
Alejandro Jodorowsky (b. 1929, Tocopilla, Chile) and Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky (b. 1972 Paris, France) live and work in Paris, France. pascALEjandro’s works have been featured in exhibitions at Kamel Mennour, Paris, France (2021); Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA (2018); the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2017); CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2015); and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2012). Association Azzedine Alaïa published a catalogue on pascALEjandro’s work, Alchemical Androgynous (2017), featuring contributions by Alaïa, Klaus Biesenbach, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Diego Moldes, Philippe Rouyer, María-Inés Rodriguez, Olivier Zahm, Diana Widmaier Picasso, and Donatien Grau. On the occasion of Galerie Azzedine Alaïa’s 2017 retrospective, the couturier’s non-profit exhibition space in Paris, Alaïa stated: “These drawings carry you off in a dream. Between earth and heaven, they show you a different vision.”