Move Me, 2014 Installation/Photography by Annemarieke van Peppen Anniversary Edition Anniversary Edition LandEscape A r t R e v i e w
SUMMARY C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w Annemarieke Van Peppen The Netherlands ICUL CTION C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w Special Issue I think my way of working is pretty intuitive, I don't want to be destracted by technique. I always look for a certain directness and rawness. I like to bring my models, even if I am the model myself, out of their comfort zone, it often gives a reaction or emotion wich helpes me forming the image and the development of my concept. Once I process the images, I like to work with my hands and experiment with materials and shapes. I think rawness and a particular way of repetition it is a common thread in my work. Nicolas Vionnet Switzerland Vionnet’s preferred medium is acrylic on canvas. His chiefly large-scale works play with space and expanse. Although almost always realistic, his paintings have more in common with abstract images than real landscapes. He paints disruptive grey strips across his clouds and allows coloured surfaces to drip down the canvas in accordance with the laws of gravity. Vionnet is fascinated by such irritations: interventions that approach and create a non-hierarchical dialogue with the environment. This dialogue opens up a field of tension, which allows the viewer an intensi-ve glimpse of both these phenomena. My ecological curiosity was first sparked resear-ching on climate change while pursuing a MA in International Political Economy. The lack of political will seemed to suggest there was a deeper ideological problem of perception towards the environment that science, despite its numerous findings, was not able to change. Somewhere along this path of translation in a “hyper-technological” society, meaning gets lost in information. Xiaohong Zhang USA I am a painter who takes colors from used, distressed material, for whom brushes strokes are tears of posters or magazines. Art is for me a process of sublimation. It is most challengingly achieved using plain, everyday life material not perceived as ‘beautiful’ because of their mundane functions. In my view it is impossible to separate the art you create from your entire life experience. No one has this freedom. We are products of past events, of interactions we have had with people in the places in which we have lived. Now, what are the driving forces, the triggering events that push you into creating? Christian Gastaldi France Germany My works generally starts from relatively small-scale drawings. A starting point, because these small formats will later encounter a different situation, an exhibition space, a stage or a book. They will transform themselves in order to adapt to a new room. Nothing remains as it was and if Dippmann uses templates – which were originally used as illustrations for a book – and converts them into large-scale murals combined with colorful yarns Ivonne Dippmann I explore whatever medium best serves my expressive needs. Each medium is a world in itself and has great potential for storytelling. It is also quiet liberating to explore different mediums, different avenues of my own personality and to truly embrace the history that comes with a particular medium. It’s almost a way of educating myself in terms of techniques while striving to choose the perfect medium for the perfect story. Lately I’ve been working at making concrete sculptures. They explore ideas of monument, architecture and minimalism. I try to challenge this industrial material to bring poetry and synergy. Caroline Monnet Canada
Special Issue 4 29 Annemarieke van Peppen lives and works in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands Nicolas Vionnet lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland Christian Gastaldi lives and works in Paris, France A lives and works in Berlin, Germany Gerd G.M. Brockmann lives and works in Flensburg, Germany Marta Wapiennik lives and works in Warsaw, Poland Caroline Monnet lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA Myriam Dalal lives and works in Paris, France Xiaohong Zhang lives and works in Lodz, Poland 34 50 64 80 98 112 124 On the cover Move Me, 2014, Installation/Photography by Annemarieke van Peppen Special thanks to Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman , Krzysztof Kaczmar, Joshua White, Nicolas Vionnet, Genevieve Favre Petroff, Sandra Hunter, MyLoan Dinh, John Moran, Marya Vyrra, Gemma Pepper, Michael Nelson, Hannah Hiaseen, Scarlett Bowman, Yelena York Tonoyan, Haylee Lenkey, Martin Gantman , Krzysztof Kaczmar and Robyn Ellenbogen. Marta Wapiennik Poland / USA I am looking for answers, I have lots of questions in my head, also much conflict. But the last thing I would say about my works is that they are coherent and consistent. I feel like I am frequently changing my „creation routine”. Style… is the worst thing that one can have as a true artist. Because what is style? Characteristic quality? If one really is looking for the truth he/she will never know what the outcome of the research will be. Style is very predictable trait which I don’t want to have. I always feel free while creating and I never try to limit myself. That is why I use photography, painting and I mix them. I treat photos as sketches and I am always surprised when they are appreciated by viewers. Gerd Brockmann Germany My work researches boundaries between fashion, art and society. I work in different participatory projects and countries as contemporary multidisciplinary artist to research with experimental materials getting a better comprehension of fashion and art as communication concept and I found a new visual language for me.Textiles are our constant companions. They offer us a second skin and protection, express what we carry as a mood, serve as a reflection in the daily lives and give us the confidence that we are the person for whom we hold. Because our clothing style, our game with the enveloping our body betrays us and others, which put an individual behind the sewn, textile material. Myriam Dalal France Refining and redefining memory, death and the notion of material presence through my work, was initially triggered by a personal experience from which I started depicting the anxiety of existing, keeping a trace and the duality of living and dying that human beings still fail to abide to.Similar to Boltanski, I might, after all, be trying to prevent death, while seeking to add to discussions of personal and collective memory within the context of society and its narratives: from the culture of commemoration, the grieve, the aftermath of conflict and the many personal mourning agonies. Ivonne Dippmann SUMMARY Land CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Escape
Annemarieke van Peppen
Bergen op Zoom based multidisciplinary artist Annemarieke van Peppen's (Rotterdam, 1971) work explores the notion of identity in our media-driven age: her works could be considered as visual biographies of the ubiquitous consequences of contemporary technosphere and urges the viewers to rethink the dichotomy between physical and digital realms. In her recent MOVE ME that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she accomplishes an insightful investigation about the notion of self-identity to question and reframe our everyday relatiosnp with ourselves, to show that people can be human again: we are really pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating artistic production. Hello Annemarieke and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you graduated from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts: how does this experience influence your evolution as an artist? In particular how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general? At the Academie for Arts & Industry (AKI, now Artez) teachers helped me to develop, deepen and explore my way of looking, I think it helped me thinking in a conceptual way. I was very young when I started (17 years) and left just before graduation. I can't exactly remember why I left back then, it probably had something to do with the rebellious character of me as a young adult. When I left the academy I worked as a waitress to support myself, in the meanwhile I started working with polaroids en exhibited with that work. I had great ambitions and wanted to become a wellknown artist. After a while I kept asking myself; 'What do I contribute in this world? Is making beautifull pictures enough?' The small successes I had back than made me feel shallow and I was not satisfied. I changed course; First I travelled through Asia and Australia, the different cultures, way of living and surviving on a very small budget had an influence on my way of thinking. Back in The Netherlands my partner and I became fosterparents of children with a mental disability. Being a fosterparent demands empathy for the often weard behavior of traumatized children. This learned me to view people in another perspective. Not judging the book by its cover, knowing that in the end we all have a backpack wich makes us react the way we do. The combination of all the above is probably the matrix of my work and I'm happy to say that I find satisfaction in my work again, because in a very small way i feel like I contribute. Annemarieke van Peppen LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets 38 An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator [email protected] [email protected]
Your approach reveals an incessant search of organic investigation about the relationship between our being human and the pervading technosphere that marks out our mediadriven lives that affects our unstable contemporary age. The results convey together a coherent and consistent sense of harmony and unity: before starting to elaborate about your production, we would suggest to our readers to visit http://www.annemariekevanpeppen.nl in order to get a synoptic view of your multifaceted artistic production: while walking our readers through your process and set up, we would like to ask you how did you develope your style and how do you conceive your works. I think my way of working is pretty intuitive, I don't want to be destracted by technique. I always look for a certain directness and rawness. I like to bring my models, even if I am the model myself, out of their comfort zone, it often gives a reaction or emotion wich helpes me forming the image and the development of my concept. Once I process the images, I like to work with my hands and experiment with materials and shapes. I think rawness and a particular way of repetition it is a common thread in my work. For this special edition of ARTiculAction we have selected MOVE ME, an extremely interesting installation, that consists of 40 portraits which are currently displayed in the Markiezenhof museum in Bergen op Zoom hat and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. When walking our readers through the enesis of this project, we would like to ask you what is the role of chance in your process: how much improvisation is important for you? Although it seems that all the pictures were taken by chance, they are very thoughtful and directed. These photos are the result of the fact that my models, now much more than twenty years ago, had difficulty relaxing. Beacuse of selfies and social media, people are so much more aware of how to look at their best in an image, they tend to draw a portrait look, a look that is totally not interesting for me. One of the things I made them do to relax is letting them move their faces. In this movement I saw them LandEscape Annemarieke van Peppen CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 40
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Annemarieke van Peppen 41
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precisely in a way that I found very powerful and magical, I started to deepen and explore it. Of course you have to make a lot of pictures just to catch that one movement and look, but I always know in advance what I want and when I have the right picture. You draw a lot from your personal experience and MOVE ME could be considered a successful attempt to create a body of works that stands as record of existence and that captures nonsharpness, going beyond the elusive relationship between experience and identity in our globalized mundanity. Even James Turrell’s obsession with light and color is often associated with his early experiences as a pilot... So we would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? I believe a creative process can never be disconnected from direct experience. In my opion everything you do, listen to, taste and touch are ingredients and part of all inspiration. You allways need input to be able to create new work, wether you are a chef, an engeneer or an artist. My brains are constantly getting new imput and thus new ideas, it never stops. The challenge is to filter and focus. MOVE ME also inquires into the interstitial space between personal and public spheres, providing the spectatorship with an immersive experience that forces such a contamination the inner and the outside: how do you see the relationship between public sphere and the role of art in public space? Although I don't make my work with an audience in mind, once it's ready I need public. I hope my work will challenge people to have a reaction, this may be an emotion, a confrontation, dislike or a sence of magical experience. It does not really matter what 43
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kind of reaction, as long as there is a reaction, as long as it moves people. Public is ultimately essential. I also like to communicate with the public, I am curious as to what it does to them and hope they challenge me in their turn with their questions or remarks to me. For me art in public spaces doesn't have to please, as long as it moves people. Your photographs seems to be the result of a lot of planning and thought, but at the same time they convey a sense of spontaneity that is a hallmark of your style. You seem to be wanting to move beyond standard representation, capturing a trascendental kind of universality: creating what at first appears to be a typical photographic portrait but subvert its compositional elements, making the viewer realize that your work has a different message. How important is it that people bring their own character to portraiture and not just the character that you as the photographer impose on them? Each portrait is a days work, I talk with the models, set them at ease, be in contact with them, which is important to me. I obeserve them, looking for a certain look, their strength or vulnerability, which they show when they're talking to me. Such calls are often deep and intense, a bond arises in a relatively short period of time. Once in front of my camera that bond is important so the models trust me and surrender themselves to me. At that point their personal character is no longer relevant to me. I see them like sculptures I can shape and I portray the way I have in mind. Perhaps, it ultimately shows a part of their character. It touches me that they are willing to share so much with me, a unique and precious encounter, I still see that in the portraits. Your incessant search for the imperfection also accomplishes an effective investigation about the relationship between imagination dued to the way we reelaborate our personal substratum and the universal imagery we draw from to create an immediately fruible CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Annemarieke van Peppen LandEscape 45
set of symbols. German multidisciplinary artist Thomas Demand once stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely so much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological, narrative elements within the medium instead". What is your opinion about it? And in particular how do you conceive the narrative for your works? We are flooded with imagery and everything is so momentary that I plea for more depth. I don't know if language should be added. I allways hope my work is challenging enough that it raises questions, so subtitles are not necessary. During my exhibition at the museum I was artist in residence, I could communicate with the visitor, personal contact in my opinion is the best way to tell your story. When inquiring about how we show ourselves as we want others to see us seems to convey a subtle but effective socio political criticismYour work conveys a subtle but effective criticism concerning the materialistically driven culture that saturate our contemporary age. But while artists from the contemporary scene, as Ai WeiWei or more recently Jennifer Linton, use to express open sociopolitical criticism in their works, you seem more interested to hint the direction, inviting the viewers to a process of self- reflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual, almost stereotyped cultural categories. Do you consider that your works could be considered political in a certain sense or did you seek to maintain a more neutral approach? And in particular, what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society? I dont think my work is political. I can be surprised about current social developments. My point of view is not that important, but I want to invite to reflect. I get irritated when we follow everything blindly. I believe we continuously have to think critically and ask ourselves or our environment why things happen. I don't judge, I'm also often struggling with how certain developments evolve and how to relate to it. I think an artist has the responsibility to help people view differently, with a broader perspective, whether it involves meaningless images or developments in society. LandEscape Annemarieke van Peppen CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 46
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Annemarieke van Peppen 47
One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? How the audience receives my work should have no influence on the process, as I said before I beleave it is my responsibility to help the audience reach a broader view. It is my interpretation that may invite to an emotion, action or conversation. Once I'm into account in advance with the public, I have to ask myself if I make pure and honest work. While recognition is nice, it is also dangerous, as soon as I make work to please I have to do something else. It should never be a trick for recognition. I'm not sure what you mean by :in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Annemarieke. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I just spent half a year as artist in residence in the musum, working on the community art project. 7 days a week I have been in the spotlight, I have met hundreds of people and portrayed them. Tommorow I'll go for a month to Bali to relax and let everything settle. I look forward to the peace and silence of my own studio when i'm back. Now that I'm almost 45, I love it that I've lost the ambition I had in my twenties. I want to start again from scratch every time, not working towards succes, but staying close to me, myself and I. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Barbara Scott, curator [email protected] [email protected] LandEscape Annemarieke van Peppen CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 50
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Annemarieke van Peppen 51
almost always realistic, his paintings have more in common with abstract images than real landscapes. He paints disruptive grey strips across his clouds and allows coloured sur-faces to drip down the canvas in accordance with the laws of gravity. Vionnet is fascinated by such irritations: interventions that approach and create a non-hierarchical dialogue with the environ-ment. This dialogue opens up a field of tension, which allows the viewer an intensi-ve glimpse of both these phenomena. Vionnet uses the same approach and the same strategy for his installations. Irritation and integration. A fundamental confrontation with the history of a place leads to a subtler and more precise intervention of the object. Take for example his man-made grass island at the Weimarhallen Park (Weimar, GER), which ironically inten-sified the park’s own artificiality. In ‘Close the Gap’ (Leipzig, GER) he bridged the space between an old-town row of houses with a printed canvas image of the now much frowned upon prefabricated buil-ding. A reference to changes in time and aesthetics. Nicolas Vionnet lives and works in the Zuricharea. He graduated from the Hochschule fürGestaltung und Kunst Basel. He graduated in2009 from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimarwith a Master of Fine Arts degree after studyingon the university’s Public Art and New ArtisticStrategies programme. Vionnet has partici-pated in various exhibitions at home and abroadsince 1999, including at the Kunsthalle Basel,the Neues Museum Weimar (Gallery marke.6)and the III Moscow International Biennale forYoung Art. An artist's statement ionnet’s preferred medium is acrylic on canvas. His chiefly large-scale works play with Vspace and expanse. Although 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Nicolas Vionnet Lives and works in Baselh, Switzerland
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Multidisciplinary artist Nicolas Vionnet's work explores the relationship between the Self and the collective consciousness, highlighting the unstable relation between these apparently opposite aspects. In his works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, he unveils the connections between our perceptual process and the elusive nature of our bodies' physicality yo accomplish the difficult task of drawing the viewers into a multilayered experience in which they are urged to rethink about the stages of the soul, spirit and body from before birth to afterlife. One of the most convincing aspect of Vionnet's approach is the way it condenses the permanent flow of associations in the realm of memory and experience: we are really pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating artistic production. Hello Nicolas, and a warm welcome to LandEscape To start this interview would you like to tell us something about your background? Are there any particular experiences that have impacted on the way you currently produce your artworks? I grew up in the region of Basel, Switzerland, and have completed my education at the University of Art and Design Basel and at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. During the first few years I have been mainly dealing with painting. Decisive for my current artistic practice was my twoyear stay in Weimar, where I graduated from the Public Art and New Artistic Strategy master’s program. During this time I was given the chance to realize my first major interventions in public space. It was an exciting and very intense time where I mainly learned to perceive my environment in a completely different way, to react and to undertake artistic interventions. Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? The principal approach in nearly all projects is quite similar, but the final work can differ greatly. In the context of an exhibition I often get a proposed specific place or I have the freedom to choose from a range of different locations in public space. My process usually begins with photo tours and walks where I am trying to become familiar with a place. Important questions for me are: how do the citizens use the place, what is its function and what role does it take in everyday life? Are there any 22 LandEscape Maya Gelfman CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Nicolas Vionnet An interview by Julian Thomas Ross, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
special circumstances or other conspicuous issues? In the next stage I start an exhaustive research, go to the library or the city archive and try to clarify the historical background of the site. During this period I normally have the first clear ideas and I start to do visualizations with Photoshop. If an idea is strong enough and can survive for several days or weeks, I move to the final phase where I start to test and to work with the needed material to finally realize the work. Now let's focus on your art production: we would start from A New Found Glory and Men after work, one of your earlier pieces that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at http://www.nicolasvionnet.ch in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these interesting projects? What was your initial inspiration? The first project you mentioned, A New Found Glory, was realized together with my friend Wouter Sibum from Rotterdam. We both graduated from the Public Art and New Artistic Strategies program in Weimar and since then, often working together as a duo. For example we realized the work Colour me surprised as part of the III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art in 2012. A New Found Glory was conceived one year later in a closed public toilet known as the M¸llloch (litter-hole) next to the Herdbr¸cke at the Donau in Ulm. For years, this non-place is closed off for the public. It gathers more and more garbage and is overgrown by weeds and wild flowers over the years. We were looking for a funny 22 LandEscape Nicolas Vionnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Nicolas Vionnet 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Nicolas Vionnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
response to the still unresolved problem and decided to install a fountain in the middle of the forbidden zone. A fountain that was only just visible for the passersby, but once looked into the hole reveals to be filling the space completely. Thus, not only surprising the passersby - at the same time also a touch of festivity and glory returned to the old city wall in Ulm. The second work, Men after work, was a minimal intervention that I have realized in the project room of WIDMER + THEODORIDIS contemporary in Zurich. The room consisted of a long, dark passage, which finally ended in a courtyard in the heart of the old town of Zurich. On the one hand, I was referring on the exhibition title Men at work. On the other hand, the small but noticeable road construction warning light has flashed in unfamiliar red light through this dark alley and had a magnetic effect on passersby. I have to underline that we only know road construction warning lights with yellow appearance in Switzerland. Therefore the red light was irritating and many of the passers-by saw it more like an indication of a red light bar. Furthermore I found the idea of a road construction warning light very charming and narrative: it is clocking-off time; the light is set to red. Come on in! One of the features that has mostly impacted on me of Jacuzzi, is the way you are effectively capable of recontextualizing the idea of the environment we live in, which is far from being just the background of our existence: you Art in a certain sense forces the viewers' perception in order to challenge the common way to perceive environment... so I would like to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? 22 Nicolas Vionnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
It is indeed the case that my work tries to sensitize the people for their immediate environment. My works are often restrained, unobtrusive and directly embedded in the landscape – my work would not be readable without a specific surrounding. So it is always about this dialogue, the positioning, interaction and what can come out of these situations. This forces the viewer to perceive the environment from a new perspective. Unimportant and inconspicuous becomes suddenly important and intrusive. Now to your question: Our experiences shape us throughout life. I see this like a simple classical conditioning. Our experiences are a key factor of how we perceive our world and how we behave in certain situations. You thus always have an impact, even if we are not always aware. In this sense, I don’t think that a creative process can be really disconnected from experience. Multidisciplinary is a recurrent feature of your artistic production and I have appreciated the effective synergy that you create between different materials, as in the stimulating Extent of reflection: while crossing the borders of different techniques have you ever happened to realize that a synergy between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts? I must admit in all honesty: Yes, I actually work with synergies, but it was never intended to do so. I very often rely on my gut instinct and just try to bring the work to a coherent state. One advantage of your mentioned interdisciplinary approach is that a work, through the interaction of different techniques, automatically focuses on several aspects and thus can be read on 22 LandEscape Nicolas Vionnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Reagan Lake LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Nicolas Vionnet CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
several levels. However, I am not consciously looking for these multiple layers. In 2011, I have realized the installation Out of sight, out of mind in a former Stasi prison in Chemnitz, Germany. The work consisted of a huge mountain of shredded paper, with which I have filled a former interstitial space knee-high. As additional audio-element there were hectic noises of steps and shredding machines. The whole work addressed the last days of the Stasi shortly before the fall oft he wall in 1989. The Stasi tried to destroy as many secret documents as possible. Even today, there are thousands of bags with shredded paper remnants that are now reassembled laboriously by hand. A hilarious story. In this sense you can see my work as a staging of the last hectic hours of the Stasi in 1989. Another interesting work of yours that have particularly impressed me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Warum Denken traurig macht, and which is a clear example of what you have once defined as "nonhierarchical dialogue with the environment". By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naif, I can recognize such a socio political aim in your Art: a constant stimulation that we absolutely need to get a point of balance that might give us the chance of re-interpreting the world we live in... and our lives, indeed... My work often focuses on the topics of integration and irritation. In other words, I'm trying to integrate something new into the existing environment and thus to irritate at the same time. However, the confusion should be subtle. The phrase "nonhierarchical dialogue with the environment" describes my conviction that the artwork itself may never be dominant. Indeed, there should be no hierarchy. Ideally, there is a balance between work and environment. This balance allows the 22 Nicolas Vionnet LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
viewer to perceive both components simultaneously. The installation Warum Denken traurig macht in my view is an oddity among my works. This project was shown in the socalled art box, a typical white cube in the shape of a container that is shown in different locations in the city of Uster. Due to the physical presence oft the box, there was already an existing hierarchy, which I could not prevent. However, I wanted to follow a particular path. Many artists before me have used the box a simple white cube to showcase their existing works. In no case I wanted to do the same. I have decided to give the box a new residential function and to turn it into a retirement home. The whole room was papered, the walls were decorated with old family photos and at the door there was a cloak hanging. In between, the phone rang and you could hear the radio. The people have actually thought that the box is inhabited. By the way: the work's title referred to the same-named book from Georges Steiner, an American literary critic, essayist and philosopher During these years your works have been exhibited in several important occasions, both in Switzerland, where you are currently based, and abroad: and I think it's important to remark that you took part to the III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art... It goes without saying that feedbacks and especially awards are capable of supporting an artist: I was just wondering if an award -or just the expectation of positive feedback- could even influence the process of an artist... By the way, how much important is for you the feedback of your audience? I sometimes wonder if it could ever exist a genuine relationship between business and Art... Absolutely. An artist needs an audience; I think that's probably one of the most important things. I want that my work can be seen! Art is destined to be shared! It is not that much important to me that I can sell my work, however, I am more interested to exhibit my work in a professional context and on a regular basis. Sales may of course also have a negative influence on the artist's way of working. Many artists argue that they are completely independent - I see that as utterly false. Let's be honest: If you feel a large interest and for example you can sell a complete series of works at once, there is a high probability that you go back to your studio and start working on similar pieces again. I think this is quite normal. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Nicolas. My last question deals with your future plans: what's next for you? Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of? I would like to thank you for your interest. My work is currently shown at several locations. At the Kulturort Galerie Weiertal (Winterthur, ending on September 7,2014) I present two installation works in a magnificent park (one of the works is the above mentioned Jacuzzi). Furthermore I participate in a group show entitled Small Works at Trestle Gallery (Brooklyn, New York, July 18 – August 22, 2014). There will be a group show entitled Trovato, non veduto at Ausstellungsraum Klingental (Basel, November 1 – 16, 2014). Moreover I am very excited to do another project together with Wouter Sibum (Rotterdam). We will present a major intervention in the sea as part oft he 4th Biennial Aarhus exhibit called Sculpture by the sea. This show will start in June 2016. You are cordially invited to visit my website www.nicolasvionnet.ch, where you can find more information and all exhibition dates. 22 LandEscape Maya Gelfman CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
strokes are tears of posters or magazines. Art is for me a process of sublimation. It is most challengingly achieved using plain, everyday life material not perceived as ‘beautiful’ because of their mundane functions. I was born in France, on the Mediterranean Sea shore, in an ‘Island city’ penetrated by salty waters. I did not study Art. Instead, an engineer diploma allowed me to live and work abroad. In 2005, the artistic project became an absolute necessity. Studios were put in place and moved around with me (Levallois, Luanda, Courbevoie, Baku, Frontignan). 2011, Redfox Press published a book in their ‘C’est mon Dada’ collection on my visual poetry work ‘Poems from inaudible voices’. 2012, I realised a commissioned work on a wall of 2.4 m by 7.5 m, for a new hotel in Barcelona. Two solo exhibitions in Barcelona and Baku (Azerbaijan) in the Center of Contemporary Art. 2013, one of my work makes the cover of the Art and Literature American RiverLit. 2014, participation with HLP galerie to the Art Fairs in Cologne (Kölner Liste, Cologne Paper Art, Art Fair). Five pages article in the Art magazine ‘Art dans l’AiR’. My work can currently be seen at the ‘Galerie Plurielle’ in Sète (France), ‘Galerie HLP’ in Cologne (Germany) and at ‘Die Hamburger galerie’ in Hambourg (Germany). An artist's statement am a painter who takes colors from used, distressed I material, for whom brushes Christian Gastaldi 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Christian Gastaldi Currently lives and works in Paris, France
LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW 22 Sous le Pont CLIX - 2013 - 41 x 33 cm Sous le Pont CLIX - 2013 - 41 x 33 cm
Focusing on the expressive potential of juxtaposition, Christian Gastaldi invites the viewers to a captivating multi-layered experience: in his collages, his refined investigation about the relationship between Memory and Experience urges us to unveil the intimate connections between the reality that we perceive and the ambiguous dimension of our inner world. Gastaldi's most convincing aspect is the way he accomplishes the difficult task of creating a concrete aesthetic that engages viewers, while conveying emotional and rational approaches into a consistent, coherent unity. I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to his refined artistic production. Hello Christian, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You are basically selftrained, so I would like to ask you if there are any experiences that have particularly influenced your evolution as an artists and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works. In my view it is impossible to separate the art you create from your entire life experience. No one has this freedom. We are products of past events, of interactions we have had with people in the places in which we have lived. Now, what are the driving forces, the triggering events that push you into creating? You may not be aware of what they are, at least immediately, and you also may not be the best placed to understand what they are! This perception comes through time, as small hints, feelings that you perceive and that sometimes fail to materialise into clear concepts. Interviews help in that respect, forcing you to put into words vague feelings, imprecise sensations. I was born in France, in Sète, along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in a city surrounded by salty waters, almost an island. Sète is a place where most inhabitants are a mix of French, Italian and Spanish origins, as I am. I came to think that the geographic setting has a strong influence on people. Sète is a place that gives you the irrepressible need for freedom and the desire to discover what lies beyond the horizon. So, I studied and worked abroad (Holland, Brunei, Argentina, Angola, Azerbaijan…) coming back regularly, as if in exile, experiencing the joy and sadness of departures. As described by Fernando Pessoa in Oda Maritima: ’O mistério alegre e triste de quem chega e parte’. Living abroad, doing geosciences research and practicing sports provided me with the emotions I needed. Then Art became a necessity. I needed the emotional rewards of the creation process, the entire mobilisation of body (soul and flesh) into a transcendent experiment. I had no choice, I had to create. Christian Gastaldi An interview by Julian Thomas Ross, curator and Barbara Scott, curator landescape@europe,com 22 LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets
If now one looks at my work, it may not be obvious at first sight, but I am a painter. And the fact that I do not use paint is a detail. I conceive my work as a painter. The graphic and chromatic equilibriums of the work are paramount. Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece? Through the years, I became fond of literature, of the rhythm and musicality of sentences. I did not care so much about the stories, but the style was critical. ‘Voyage au bout de la nuit’ of Louis-Ferdinand Céline and ‘L’amant’ of Marguerite Duras are great examples for me of what can be achieved through style. This is what I want to achieve in Art. How does a writer arrange the succession of words to resound with the inner self of the reader? How can the rhythm of written words create transcending feelings? I have similar questions in mind when I do my work. How can I create rhythm and equilibrium in a frozen frame? How can I arrange linear elements to create movement? How will the picture be balanced if I accumulate elements in one place? ... In addition to Rhythm and Equilibrium, the material used is critical. The transcending nature of art is reinforced when working from mundane material, from elements that contain dismissed traces of life. That’s the reason why I work from used magazines, newspapers or distressed posters recovered from illegal billposting places. The time spent to create a piece is variable with the nature of the material used and the size of the piece. I generally spend more time collecting materials or finding the places where posters can be collected, than doing the work itself. I try do a sketch before starting the work, by arranging the paper elements side by side on the floor before going into the gluing process. But this is impossible when I work on a piece which is purely focussing on rhythm from typographic elements, like ‘Sous le Pont XCII’. In that case, I put together the elements of typography I want to use and start straight away without knowing exactly where I will end-up, except that the direction was clear: I had decided, in this case, not to use any vertical or horizontal lines. I wanted to create a piece that flows. In 2013, when I did a commissioned work for a hotel in Barcelona on a 2.4 m by 7.5 m wall, it took me a day to do the initial compositional sketch on the floor, then 15 days to finalize the work on the wall, out of which, one day was spent to complete the final half square meter without destroying the equilibrium of the entire wall! Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from your Landscape that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your blog http://christiangastaldi.centerblog.net or your website http://christiangastaldi.webgarden.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production... In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration? Landscape was my first series. At that time I was mostly working from torn magazines. The series started with the intention to study how the chaos of juxtaposed paper blocks and the usage of bright colours could be organised to create forceful, yet harmonious, landscapes. In the process, I sometimes deliberately unsettled the composition to see how it could later be recovered. As the series progressed, the colours became fainter and Christian Gastaldi 22 LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 the works moved from figurative to abstract until I discovered Nicholas de Staël landscapes. It disturbed me. I had evolved towards the type of abstraction and cold colours he had used. So I stopped. The choice of the theme had also to do with the fact that Landscape is a ‘classical’ subject of painting. I decided that, if starting in Art, I had to confront myself with classical topics right from start. Even more so with the unusual type of material I used. Before the Landscapes, my earlier subjects were even more classical: Christ and Madonna! The picture ‘Monocromo azul (casi)’, though part of ‘Monochromes (quasi)’ series, is conceived as a landscape. It is a tribute to my Mediterranean origin. An important aspect of the way you organize your works in series comes from the original place you pick the materials: the bond between the past of the images and their new life unveils the subtle but ubiquitous connection between Imagination and everyday life: your vision seems to speak of a kind an abstract beauty that starts from a mundane imagery but that brings a new level of significance to images. I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense your works challenge the viewers' perception in order to going beyond the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but the way we relate to it... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some information and ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this? My work should certainly force the viewer to reconsider his environment. As I pick-up elements, visible in everyday life, under other functions (and therefore with other meanings) I take the viewer to question the perenniality of the messages, of the images. Displayed in a LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Christian Gastaldi LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
canvas they acquire a new function. To keep the viewer totally free in his re-interpretation I systematically destroy the original messages and images. They are reincorporated in a new chaos of onomatopoeia, the Babel world of today. Using everyday life material not perceived as ‘beautiful’ you establish an effective symbiosis between Memory and Experience that takes an intense participatory line with the viewers. While creating such intimate involvement, you seem to remove the historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more absolute, almost atemporal form. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience? As we discussed earlier I don’t think it can be. And I would even say it should not. Art without the projection of the personality of 22 LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW MPL00 - 2012 - 7.5 x 2.4 m - Reception room of hotel Vincci Bit (commissioned work) - Barcelona, Spain
the artist is a negation of Art, a senseless activity. There are already so many of those meaningless activities in our surrounding environment, not to add Art to this list. I believe in Art as both a product and a source of emotions. I cannot conceive it as a pure intellectual activity. Of course thinking goes into a piece of art but it is for the benefit of the creation of emotion, not as a substitute, a justification by itself. Experience is the soil that feed the art. I started late my artistic activities. Maybe I needed more time than others to assimilate life experiences. I daresay that your visionary approach to re-contextualization that emerges with a particular energy in Sous le pont has suggested me the idea that environment acts as cornerstones for a fulfilment process that has reminded me of German sculptor and photographer Thomas Demand, when he stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological 22 Christian Gastaldi LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
narrative elements within the medium instead": what's your point about this? And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works? The environment, and the way it expressed itself into the material, is critical to my work. My series from distressed posters are organised by the places where the material was collected. The characteristics of the place and of the people that live there, are influencing the specificities of the colours and typography used. They provide a humanity to the medium that I want to reveal in the creation process. So it is right to say that, in that case, the environment provides the narrative elements of the creation. I have also experienced in my work, that I sometimes use a narrative analogy to help structure my creation. A strong tear, through stack of posters, will be perceived as an analogy of a sea shore line, separating two physical worlds, like in ‘Sous le Pont CLIX’. I have appreciate the investigative feature of the way you explore emerging visual contexts: in particular the posters that you used for MAR-POI, a project that I have to admit is one of my favourite of your wide production, have been collected in Paris subway stations and show an incessant search of an organic, almost intimate symbiosis between colours associations and arrangement of textures. Like many art forms, collage can borrow elements to create new art: your main sources are tears of posters or magazines: in your opinion are there limits to what can or should be used to create collages? In particular are there any constraints or rules that you follow when creating collages? The only acceptable limits in Art are those that you imposed to yourself. Those constraints are a stimulus to the creation process. Any material, in particular in 22 Christian Gastaldi LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
collage, can be used. I am an admirer of Rosalie Gascoigne’s work, and of the old painted wood she used in some of her creations. My current preference is for material which has been exposed to life. The ‘MAR-POI’ series originates from old posters collected at the Paris subway station ‘Marcadet-Poissonniers’ undergoing refurbishment. At that occasion, the recent posters had been removed from walls, leaving to the surface old posters, hard to remove. They were several decades old. The passing of time had given them specific textures and altered colours. They had a fragile beauty that interested me. Only small elements could be recovered, difficult to manipulate. In that case my work is on subtlety. If most of ‘Sous le Pont’ series can be seen as, as you said, energetic, sort of fights within canvasses, MAR-POI is a caress. In MAR-POI 10, I decided to use only colours elements. No line, no letter, no figurative element. A pure chromatic palette. In doing so, I am, more than never, a painter. The challenge was to find an arrangement of colours that vibrates with the perception of textures. Softness of the tears, conveyed the fragility I wanted to achieve. I particularly liked the fainted colours that reminded me of old Japanese prints and the manner they were later interpreted by Van Gogh and Gauguin. The associations expressed by the juxtaposition process seem to avoid any precise politicized meanings: however, it's almost impossible to deny that giving a second life to images -and sometimes to the concept behind them- could be defined such a politicized practice itself. By the way, although I'm aware that this might sound a bit naïf, I have to admit that I'm sort of convinced that Art -especially nowadayscould play an effective role in socio-political questions: not only just by offering to people a generic platform for expression... I would go as far as to state that Art could even steer people's behaviour... what's your point about this? Does it sound a bit exaggerated? I totally agree with you that giving a second chance to images (and elevating them into 22 LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22 Christian Gastaldi LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
pieces of art) is a politicised stance. Even more so when there is no explicit political messages imposed on the viewer. I find a bit obscene, even if the word is a bit strong, to have messages on a canvas. As a viewer I want to be free to think on my own. It also distracts the viewer, steers him to the trivial, when what is essential is to emotionally react. My pictures do not have political intentions. But, by the choice of material, I would like to contribute to making people proud of themselves. They are much more capable than the politicians or the society want them to believe. Seeing elements that they are familiar with, in a new context, could help them rethinking their role in society. Will it steer people’s behaviour? I would like to be as optimist as you are! Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Christian. Finally, I would you like to tell us readers something 22 LandEscape Christian Gastaldi CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
about your future projects. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of? Currently I am for a month in an artist residency in Moncontour in France. My intention is to work on large formats on the MPL series. Then I will customise a cow for the Paris ‘Cow Parade 2015’, go to Sète for the opening of the ‘Transformations Urbaines’ exhibition at Galerie Plurielle (JuneOctober) and install a solo exhibition at a winery in Var, south of France, during JulyAugust. In October, I will participate to the Salon Réalités Nouvelles in Paris. Before that, I will most likely go back to Montréal (Canada) to work with OXYD Factory on the second phase of our common project where we combined old car parts with distressed posters into creations focussing on textures. 22 Christian Gastaldi LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW An interview by Julian Thomas Ross, curator and Barbara Scott, curator [email protected]
appearance of my environment”, says Ivonne Dippmann of her own work. However, she changed her environment constantly. Born and raised 1981 in KarlMarx-Stadt, former East Germany, a city that has changed its name twice within fifty years. No place that would guarantee consistency, unless for a constancy of change and loss. Since Dippmann has left her hometown, she made stations in the United States, in the Basque country in Spain and lived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Berlin. The origin can not explain what happens in her work, and it would also be one-dimensional to look for a simple and simplistic basis in this bundle, which defines it – technique, expression, style and color, a will and political passion which seeks for space and its power being transformed into images. Nevertheless, the place where a drawing, graphic or other image of work is produced, plays a special role. Ivonne Dippmann generally starts from relatively small-scale drawings. A starting point, a beginning, because these small formats will later encounter a different situation, an exhibition space, a stage or a book. They will transform themselves in order to adapt to a new room. Nothing remains as it was and if Dippmann uses templates – which were originally used as illustrations for a book – and converts them into largescale murals combined with colorful yarns stretched within a space, it creates a unique effect. Because she phrases a no man’s land, which is both politically and geographically allocated. A paradoxical everywhere. An artist's statement ince the beginning of my work the artistic discourse is situated very S much within the aesthetics and Ivonne Dippmann LandEscape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Ivonne Dippmann Lives and works in Berlin, Germany 22