the press kit - Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire

PRESS RELEASE
Catherine poncin
The way one crosses the yard
Exhibition: 4.12 - 20.12.2014
Then 6.01 - 17.01.2015
L’envol vers Polyphème, 2013
17, rue des Filles-du-Calvaire 75003 Paris // 01 42 74 47 05 // [email protected]
Catherine poncin
Opening: Thursday, 4.12.14 - 6pm
The way one crosses the yard
Writing on Catherine Poncin is a
challenge: so much has already been
written, and by so many critics1 who
detailed and dissected the various aspects of her work, that the chore appears unbearably Sisyphean. And yet,
a line can possibly be traced between
the different bodies of images, browsing the numerous texts that each talk
Sysphide, le nomadisme perpétuel, 2012
of a specific series of hers. As a matter
of fact, the artists develops each time
an intense and intimate relationship to a theme, a place, a setting for encounters and thus creates almost in situ projects be they the fruit of a commission
or of her personal thrills.
If Catherine Poncin has always dug into archives, rarely has she mentioned
her special interests, though it might appear clearly to the eyes of the classical
iconography connoisseurs: literature and history of the arts. Both punctuate
her photographs and films, sustain her thoughts, gathered in her speech. Her
work often deals with re-composed pieces that echo a specific story, a moment, or sometimes even a book. One can take a closer look at her several
works focusing on North African countries2 : it brings to mind Albert Camus but
also Kateb Yacine3, or even in a different way her series Palimpseste following
the commission of the castle Ferney-Voltaire (its name blows a narrative wind
dear to the ears of the image readers), all links with a literary backbone. This
work of de- then re-contextualisation of images combined together is the very
basis of her language. Reading between the lines that divide her montages,
one can sometime even grasp the writings she discovers. What more common
than to say that an image is a way to write with light instead of writing with
ink and words?
This time, Catherine Poncin’s images are randomly grouped, creating a promenade between each frame or photograph. Some should recognize projects,
moments, be it the commission of the city of Grasse, her travel to Jordan or
the residency in the Maison des Arts Bernard Anthonioz4 where the Smith sisters lived. Others, the lesser aware, will be pleased to witness an act that altogether form a new play. It is the appeal of this exhibition project: to associate
P. Ardenne, D. Baqué, A. Canitrot, F. Chapuis, M. Cohen-Hadria, L. Divendal, A-M. Garat, C. Gattinoni, E.
Hermange, M. Jauffret, A. Karroum, N. Leleu, A-M. Morice, C. Ollier, M. Poivert, P. Piguet, F. Soulages, D. Séris.
2
Sans conte ni légende, Eclats, Vertiges et Vis-à-Vis (Miramas and Seine-Saint-Denis).
3
Born in Constantine, Algeria, Kateb Yacine wrote novels and plays in a proper French language that bears
traces of his origins and mixes languages in many ways.
4
Gérard Alaux runs the Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz in Nogent-sur-Marne, a place dedicated to visual
arts, founded by the Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, that hosts and supports many
artists in their projects. They helped Catherine Poncin in her enquiries on the library of the Smith sisters.
1
diverse moments of photography in
a common image, between narration
and history of the arts or between literature and painting in a way.
One shouldn’t therefore be surprised to see the iconic status of the
image put forward since Paul ArAgar avait un ange, 2013
denne already mentioned it in 1996
as central to Catherine Poncin’s art.
The art historians shall recognize within the dove5 Venus or Aphrodite and its
omnipresence in the Renaissance paintings. In this other piece, from Jordan,
they might link engraving, the wing of an angel and Judah’s tree and shall
link this very tree with the ‘‘bitume de Judée’’ a bituminous mixture used in
painting as a fossil pigment and with Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in which
Judah, trying to seize the bread from Jesus’ hands, thus designating himself as
a traitor. It might be clever not to decipher each of those pieces in the sense
that some resist when submitted to our cognitive skills and that may be what
makes them so literary, so plural anyway. The chromatic installation Chant de
roses (Roses Song), while reviving the book it derives from, a 19th century
text by Alphonse Kharr6 My Garden, oversteps the mere anecdote of picking
the most beautiful rose that the author describes in his flower alphabet book.
What strikes us is the sound and visual work, the almost synesthetic dimension of Catherine Poncin’s project produced in association with the composer
Philippe Valembois, both re-interpreting the story.
Let’s talk about criss-crossing, a title that goes without saying for an artist
whose path and wishes run along a contorted road, the way a cradle-oued
might sometimes turns into a torrent. The key of this exhibition lies in this
total piece, a river artwork… The Dominotés reminds us of an anthological
fresco made of earthenware and gardens, sculptures, illumination, a kind of
global book as dense as Sartre’s library7… In a word, a musical, visual, sensitive
path and that is maybe the place where Catherine Poncin, in a surprising and
splendid manner, goes beyond literature.
Valentine Umansky
5
Sans titre, a photographic piece made after the city of Grasse’s commission: it associates a video screenshot
of a dove and a wallpaper landscape.
6
Alphonse Kharr is a French journalist and novelist who wrote Sous les tilleuls, he is quite fond, as the title
suggests, of gardens.
7 In Les Mots, Sartre speaks of the globe-library (bibliothèque-monde) : « Je n’ai jamais gratté la terre ni
quêté des nids, je n’ai pas herborisé ni lancé des pierres aux oiseaux. Mais les livres ont été mes oiseaux et
mes nids, mes bêtes domestiques, mon étable et ma campagne ; la bibliothèque, c’était le monde pris dans
un miroir ; elle en avait l’épaisseur infinie, la varitété, l’imprévisibilité. »
Divine tragédie, 2014
Catherine Poncin
Was born in 1953 in Dijon, France.
She lives and works in Montreuil, France.
Solo Shows (selection)
2015
2014
2012
2010
2011
2008 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
Catherine Poncin, Alliance Française de Bogota, Colombia
Traversées, Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Paris, Fr
1418. Échos, versos et graphies de batailles, (commande) Aux Archives départementales de la Seine-Saint-Denis, Fr
Bibliothèque patrimoniale de Grasse – Ville de Grasse, Fr
Un visage des visages ‘Ode à neuf voix’ , Carte blanche à Catherine Poncin et Damaris Risch, La condition Publique, Roubaix, Fr
De Vis à Vis en Vertiges, Galerie Regard Sud, Lyon, Fr
3ème Biennale Internationale, Palais Baya de Marrakech - Palazzo Riso, Palerme, Italy
Working for Change, appartement 22, Pavillon Marocain, Venise, Italy
Darat al Funun, The Khalid Shoman Foundation Sentences on the banks and other activities - Amman, Jordania
De fonds... en combles Carte blanche à Catherine Poncin, expositions, installation/oeuvres
photographique, vidéo Musée Alfred Canel, Pont-Audemer, France
Appartement 22 Rabat, Maroc
Musée des Beaux-arts d’Oran, Algérie
Corpus, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen & UMC St Radboud, Pays-Bas, Novembre
Sans conte ni légende-Vis à Vis, Miramas, Images du pôle, Galerie Lumen, Orléans, France
La Boite de Pandore, Musée de la Faïencerie de Gien, Gien, Fr
La Boite de Pandore, Faïencerie de Gien, Paris, Fr
La Boite de Pandore, Faïencerie de Gien, Bruxelles, Belgium
Eloge de combats ordinaires, Tour Vauban- Conseil Général Territoire de Belfort, Fr
Centre Culturel Français d’Alger, Algeria
Vis à Vis, Espace Khiasma, Les Lilas, Fr
Vis à Vis, Théâtre Gérard Philippe, Saint-Denis, Fr
Vertiges, Centre culturel français de Constantine, Algeria
Galerie Néo 7 Ottawa Ontario, Canada
Centre Culturel Français d’Alger, Algeria
Vis à Vis, Exposition Médiathèque de Miramas, Fr
De l’image par l’image, Mois de la Photo, Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Paris, Fr
De l’image par l’image, Galerie Les filles du calvaire, Bruxelles, Belgium
Bibliothèque Robert-Desnos, Montreuil, Fr
Sans conte ni légende, L’espal, scène conventionnée Le Mans, Fr
Lycée Alexandre Dumas, Alger, Algeria
Centre Culturel Français de Constantine, Algeria
Sans conte ni légende, Centre Culturel de Miramas, Fr
Sans conte ni légende, Institut Français de Fès-Meknès, Marocco
Sans conte ni légende, Institut Français de Rabat, Marocco
Sans conte ni légende, Institut Français de Casablanca, Marocco
Ecomusée de Fresnes, Musée des Pays de Seine et Marne (commande 2003), Fr
Clair-obscur, ou mémoire de fosses, Centre Culturel Dobel, Paris, Fr
Du nous, Le Cap, Le Granit, Belfort, Fr
Mai de la Photo (commande), Quimper, Fr
Rocca de Baldi (commande 2002), Italy
Palimpseste, Commande de Auberge de l’Europe, Musée Voltaire, Fernay Voltaire, Fr
Du champ des hommes, territoires, commande de la Ville de Bobigny, Bobigny, Fr
Fondation Penteao Sao Paulo, Brasil
Du Nous, Rencontres Photographiques Image/Imatge, Orthez, Fr