Scarica | Download - art a part of cult(ure)

question that I address to an audience in order to set up a situation, a frame of mind. So
architecture certainly has an influence on the way you live your life, which is perhaps the
main definition of architecture. But when it comes to thinking about an exhibition, thinking
about an object or structure as a sculptural element, architecture as a frame of mind is
probably the way how to lead the audience to the questioning.
FDF: 3. Your work is not limited to video installations or performances.
You make use of a range of media: videos, sounds, installations, performances,
paintings, sculptures. Do you privilege any of them above the others?
CL: 3. I am not sure. It’s quite like life and its cycles. Since I moved here to England
people ask me what kind of artist I am, a painter or… And I quite like to answer that I use
different languages, and languages are a means to express yourself. Painting is probably
the first sort of language I came up with as a kid. My early works were dispositives or
total installations in which I involved myself and the audience. The theme was often
‘desire’ and the body was used in relation to architectural forms or objects. I wanted to
observe the behaviour of the people around my work. I usually developed video pieces
with the material shot during openings or performances. When presenting my work in
other continents and other cultures I learnt how to make my work pursue my aims. The
social and cultural awareness made my work physically and technically lighter. I use
different media to serve my ideas. The idea comes first then I use the most appropriate
medium.
FDF: 4. Could you tell me something about one of your exhibitions or
performances abroad?
CL: 4. In 2002 I was invited to do some performances in Rome in the de-consecrated
convent of Sant’Ambrogio in the Jewish ghetto. Being in Italy if you have an interest in
painting you cannot put painting aside. The performance I did was called “Ceiling Painting”
as a reference to the Sistine Chapel which is for many people one of the greatest
masterpieces of all times. It was a performance about the desire of intimacy, sexuality. It’s
a theme that often comes up in my work. It was a performance on a small and intimate
scale. I had a little canvas and there were people around me. I blew at people’s foreheads,
and blowing at their face felt like a strong invasion in their intimacy. I was trying to make
eye-contact with the audience, but some people avoided me. So I had to wait until
someone looked at me in my eyes as to give me the consent to carry on. I chose a lady
but part of me would have preferred a man. I was lying on the floor painting the body of a
young lady who stood astride me and I started to paint what I would have wanted to see
behind the canvas (which was in between the lady’s legs). I developed other works about
paintings, like in Helsinki. I asked to have a scaffold with seven platforms and during the
whole afternoon I portrayed seven different people on each platform. This series of
paintings is an ongoing work. I have now thirty-seven paintings of both women and men.
I feel a need to continue this series for the richness of colour it brings to the body of my
work, even if I keep the paintings hidden.
FDF: 5. How did you start to conceive your performance Technotrans
(Technologie/Transports), and how was the art organization involved in it?
CL: 5. Collectif La Valise is a French group of three artists working on architecture projects
both in France and in the rest of Europe trying to bring art to a wider public. They
contacted me to work with six artists on a socially engaged project. We had to develop a
work within the context of a public event. They knew that their project would have taken
place over a year. When they invited me they sent me a list of various public events like a
football match, the election of the mayor, the Tour de France, many kind of conventions,
food conventions, builders conventions, and that’s when I saw the transports convention
entitled Technotrans, I immediately thought about the asylum seekers and refugees I met
in London. I had been moved when I heard some of them singing. It made me think that
their songs associated to the truck industry and techno music, which has no lyrics, would
create a powerful alchemy. Moreover, on the twenty first of June Collectif La Valise will
publish a book about the seven different artists who took part in their project. They will