MONACO.- Up to 7°C at the end of the century, cyclones, hurricanes, Indonesian cities sinking under rising seas, Amazonia in flames, California under evacuation following the ravages of Cal Fire, the list is still long ...

Is this world serious?

If nowadays, more than ever, we are informed of the natural disasters devastating the planet, the world seems to have become crazy, swept along by an exponential irremediable process. Through this new exhibition of paintings and sculptures, Philippe Pastor questions this chaos and the destructive force of Man, directed against his fellow human beings and his environment.

In the first room, you find an installation of the emblematic Burned Trees series, composed of a set of 28 sculptures made of calcinated black trunks. Majestic silhouettes erected in groves, the trees are brought back to life and impose their troubling presence.

It was in order to raise public awareness of forest fires, that Philippe Pastor created this series in 2003, in the heart of the Massif des Maures. Having become symbols of the fight against deforestation, The Burned Trees have been presented around the world, particularly within the framework of the Campaign ‘‘Plant for the Planet’’, organized by the UNEP.

The black version shown here, designed for the interior, reminds us of the monumental installation integrated in the Pavilion of Monaco, during the Universal Exhibition in Milan in 2015. It contrasts with the installation, punctuated with color, set up last month in the Garden Sacha Sosno, in Nice.

In the second room, the large paintings resonate with the sculptures. Philippe Pastor works, once again, with time and nature. A magnificent painting from the Blue Monochrome series, created from natural pigments of a particularly intense blue, invokes the infinite expanse of seas and oceans. The matter is nourished by diverse fragile and delicate natural elements, which animate the surface of the canvas.

Around this monumental piece are presented recent paintings of the series Avec le Temps (‘‘With Time’’). Here, the matter unfolds in ebb and flow of elements that circulate and clash. Through this series, the artist summons the strength and power of natural elements to address the theme of climate change and the phenomena of hurricanes and tornadoes, which are multiplying around the globe.

Is this world serious? Sounds as a warning against the harm done to nature. If the exhibition appeals to Man’s responsibility, it is above all a sensitive evocation of the cycle of life, where the works of Philippe Pastor express the fragility, but also the beauty, the complexity and resilience, of nature, essential to our planet’s equilibrium.