One figure wears red sweatpants, the other purple. Their bodies twist and contort, always on the verge of falling. It could be a hip-hop dance battle, but it's more of an intimate insurrection. This impeccably photorealistic diptych, by artist Dhewadi Hadjab, depicts the conversion of Saint Paul. In spring, these two – as yet unfinished – paintings will adorn the north and south vestibules of the Saint-Eustache church, in Paris.
It was an "obvious" choice for the painter, who is very familiar with this cathedral-like church that overlooks Paris' central Les Halles district. In 2021, while still a student at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, he had exhibited there two huge paintings, in which two more upside-down bodies were trying to keep their balance on a piece of church furniture used to kneel in prayer. At the time, Hadjab had to reassure his Muslim parents, who lived in Algeria, by explaining that it was not necessary to convert to Catholicism to be allowed to exhibit art at Saint-Eustache. "This is not only a place of worship, but also of culture," he told them several times.
Yves Trocheris, the church's priest, who gave Hadjab complete artistic freedom, said that this was not about "Christian art," but of a "common and universal complicity." The priest, who would cite philosophers such as Hegel, Kant, Adorno and Benjamin, and speak of art as an "anti-destiny," has hoped to reach the young people from Paris' underprivileged suburbs who hang out around Les Halles and who don't always enter Saint-Eustache. "It's not a question of converting them, but of starting a conversation, without any desire to propagandize," explained the clergyman.
Even the most agnostic of artists have to admit it: Saint-Eustache, which will celebrate its 800th birthday in 2024, with events such as the Luminiscence sound and light festival, is a blessing for creation in all its forms, from electro-rock festivals to design shows – in 2023, the worn straw chairs were replaced by reversible benches designed by Constance Guisset. "For a painter, it's the Holy Grail," said Hadjab, who, at the age of 32, is following in the footsteps of illustrious predecessors such as Rubens, Luca Giordano and Simon Vouet. Not to mention John Armleder, who created two paintings for the church's Chapelle des Charcutiers, and Pascal Convert, whose glass sculpture of Christ – donated by the Antoine de Galbert Foundation – has since found a home there.
In the 1990s, going against the grain of the Catholic Church's moralistic stance on AIDS, Father Gérard Bénéteau, the church's priest at the time, opened a gallery with the help of exhibition curator Suzanne Pagé – with all of the gallery's proceeds being donated to people affected by the epidemic. "The Life of Christ," a work created by the American artist Keith Haring two months before his death from AIDS in 1990, bears witness to this commitment. The bronze triptych depicts God the Father extending his 13 divine tentacles to embrace humanity, angels hovering above the crowd, and finally the "radiant child" – the American artist's famous pictogram. "An object of art, but also one of devotion," said Father Trocheris, amazed by "Haring's theological intuition, his finely-tuned expression of the Trinity, of the celestial, infra-celestial and supra-celestial order."
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