CLAIRE DE SANTA COLOMA Pause is a variety of accumulated movement Opening Saturday 11 March, 4 to 8 pm Exhibit Saturday 11 March to Saturday 29 April 2017
Untitled (detail), 2016
Cut-‐out 300 gr. arches paper 114 x 114 cm
“Pause is a variety of accumulated movement,” said Ossip E. Mandelstam in his analysis as he followed Dante Alighieri’s path during his Italian exile. That path is what, many years later, brought the Italian poet, writer and political figure to write The Divine Comedy. The work of Claire de Santa Coloma brings together the characteristics of the notion of “pause” as described by Mandelstam. By staying still and observing her works at length, by lingering with them, by taking that time, we come to fully embrace what each one encompasses. Shade and luminosity, or surface and time spent for every strike of the hollow chisel. The artist’s work involves notions of space, of an organic and ephemeral quality, but also of the link between concrete and abstract worlds. Her practice is a perfect example of a contemporary individual mythology. Santa Coloma does not merely create objects, she produces benchmark constellations within which the constitutive elements are particularly showcased. The works shown at Galerie Virginie Louvet include sculptures and works on paper. The approach on the latter questions the use of time, of repetition, as well as the frugality of gestures and means. We have pieces here in which the language used to express their artistic essence has been lost. With the elaboration of a non-‐stylized image, there is a will for a piece to elaborate itself through its own style, like a silent voice -‐ the voice of the present.
Claire de Santa Coloma (born in Buenos Aires in 1983,) lives and works in Lisbon. She furbished her craft at the Ateliers des Beaux-‐Arts de la Ville de Paris (centre Glacière) where she specialized in taille directe sculpture, while simultaneously obtaining a Master in Plastic Arts Research at Paris I-‐Sorbonne. She was a resident at the Casa de Velázquez (Madrid) between 2007 and 2009. She has since been living in Lisbon, taking part in the Independent Study Program at the Maumaus School of Visual Arts, and presenting works with them at the 29th Biennial in Sao Paulo in 2010. She is currently artist in residence invited by the city of Lisbon, the 2017 Ibero-‐American Culture Capital. Her works have been shown regularly since 2008, in individual or group shows, and she has participated in numerous international artist residencies.
Galerie Virginie Louvet 48 rue Chapon 75003 Paris
+33 1 42 7197 48 [email protected]
