Ambi, Full of Fire

Emma Zucchi, Ventilo, 1 April 2017.

A portrait of Ambi (Ambi-nintsoa Andrianjakarivelo), a visual artist of Malagasy origin who has lived in France for some fifteen years. Her work follows in the line of arte povera, and fire has become her raw material. The interview traces her childhood in Tananarive, in a conservative household, and her departure for France at 22, which she describes “as a necessity.” It covers her hesitant early years in fine arts, before a turning point in her third year around the theme of the trace. It also describes her solitary night-time practice, mixing glue and solvents with a blowtorch to the edge of danger, on paper made from havoa bark, which regenerates after cutting.

The article also touches on her double life as a pétanque player and referee, and the exhibition of her work at the Maison de la Boule in Le Panier, alongside the Marseille pétanque-ball maker.

I try to tame fire, but I never really manage it. There’s a part that always escapes me; maybe that’s what feeds me…

Summary and quotation from the original article, signed Emma Zucchi (Ventilo), under the title “Tout feu tout flamme.”