Between Tuesday the 14th and Saturday the 18th of June 1994 there was an exhibition of artwork inspired by Vander's music, in the auditorium of Fnac Forum (a large audio/video entertainment store in the Les Halles district of Paris). The first special event was the expo's vernissage at 12h30 on the 14th. Christian Vander was due to be there but he was ill (suffering from hay fever), however he was expected to show up later in the week. Among the celebrities at the preview were Stella Vander, Isabelle Feuillebois, Bernard Paganotti, Patrick Gauthier, Stündëhr and Klaus Blasquiz.
On show were twenty-two paintings and drawings, which included three by Philippe Druillet, two from Moebius and two from Klaus Blasquiz. Furthermore there were two works in bas-relief, three little sculptures and two panels with tens of small drawings and paintings. These two panels included experimentations for the Magma logo and variations in calligraphy for the bands name, also alternative versions of the cover for their first album. Half the paintings and sculptures were really about Magma, the remainder being mostly science fiction inspired, for example those of Druillet and Moebius. Some of the "Magma" paintings were terrific. Obviously some of the artists were present too, as was Jad Ayache from XAAL. On the Friday they had planned to have a mini-concert by the Christian Vander Trio but this had to be cancelled, however the other special event, a live set by XAAL went ahead as promised. There were a lot of people in the small auditorium (about 150), Xaal played for seventy-five minutes, performing seven pieces from their CD and three others (possibly new material) that featured more percussion.
CD: Corinne Dupont - Mekanīk Grafīk OrganiserTM: Could you tell us about the origins of the Mekanīk Grafīk exhibition?
CD: I'm part of an association called FORMAT GRAND AIGLE. The idea came to us after a Les Voix de Magma concert. We already had many paintings that were more or less inspired by Magma's music and we were certain that there were others like us. We already knew the masters such as Druillet, Moebius, Sole and Gotlib. Starting from there, the idea came to us to contact the others, less well-known painters. After a year and a half of distributing leaflets at each concert, we met a lot of people.
TM: What sort of problems have you encountered in staging this exhibition?
CD: The major problem was to find all the people here, because sometimes we had contacts just at concerts. Quite paradoxically, we had fewer problems with folks like Philippe Druillet and Moebius.
TM: Are you a graphic artist yourself?
CD: I paint but I don't exhibit. I'm working on it.
TM: Will this exhibition be a springboard for other things?
CD: I'm a fan of Druillet, Moebius, Bilal and I want to try to promote the young unknowns.
TM: How did you discover Magma's music?
CD: I was 16 or 17 years old and a friend bought a Ferrari from Christian Vander. He made me listen to the 'Merci' album. It's the most accessible. Then I continued. It's an endless discovery.
TM: Of the artists on show here, which ones do you prefer?
CD: I don't like to criticise, but apart from the big names, I like Vincent Sauvion a lot. I think he does some very fine things. I also like Stephan Helouin, Janick Dupont and Thierry Moreau (laughs). I have some plans for things with Laurent Thibault, I like to organise things...