CAMILLE KACHANI
“Fósforo-árvore” (Match-Tree) , 2014 - 2024
Wood, metal and resin
450 x 30 x 120 cm
The work “Fósforo-árvore” is part of the artist's research on the relationship between
Nature and Culture. Simultaneously representing Nature (a whole tree trunk) and a
founding object of human culture (a tool for obtaining fire), the work emphasizes that
both concepts (Nature and Culture) are now inseparable, creating a contemporary
paradigm where everything is simultaneously natural and cultural. Humankind's
global management of nature turns the planet into a cultural habitat. This only
reaffirms humankind's obligation to preserve and care for nature-culture, which is
exactly the opposite of what we do today. Fire is not the enemy, as we evolved to be
rational thanks to having learned to use it, both for cooking food and for warmth. Our
greatest challenge is to silence human arrogance, which thinks we can dispose of
Nature and the planet at our whim, as if we were masters of the process of life, while
in reality we are just another species dependent on the environment for survival.
Camille Kachani
Beirut, Lebanon, 1963
Lives and works in São Paulo, SP
Camille Kachani arrived in Brazil in 1971, fleeing the war in Lebanon. He studied
photography, painting, and sculpture and began working as a nature photographer.
Gradually, he moved toward a mixed approach involving image, collage, and
sculpture. His work explores concepts such as identity and belonging, suggesting,
based on autobiographical references, that these are formed through the acquisition
of culture, in a movement of eternal construction and dissolution. He proposes the
thesis that culture and nature are now inseparable, thus forming the corpus of the
contemporary human being, an idea that would guide his work in recent years.
