ARTWORK COLLECTIVE

Victory CATHALAN. Paris

Between silence and appeasement, his paintings seem to be the reflection of recognizable vegetation or an experienced situation. It's the case. She observes and creates. And yet. The imprint of his imagination casts doubt.

State. Faced with his “oil on canvas” painting and his colors, we find ourselves somewhere between a sustained, volatile and sustained fragility, and the homogeneity of a timeless power. His painting is direct.  

Feeling. Like their creator, the works exude joy of life and peace of mind. The call to contemplation is a common point between his drawings and his paintings. His more narrative “Indian ink on paper” drawings open the doors to the imagination.

Leaving his workshop, I feel his world. His painting suggests and his drawing disposes. It was a dialogue. Like a dance, I had followed suit and yet been able to lead.

Epidermal. Met in March 2014, its imprint is such that time expands.

 

Julia DE COOKER. Paris

Photographer. The mineral predominates in his work. Only then does life take shape. The “Svalbard” series forces me to see in colors. Starting from white, the colors slowly impose themselves. His need to travel the globe in search of little-known universes is surprising. His eye detects the detail and his frame brings an unexpected tone. 

“Svalbard, an Arctic Life” offers a certain perspective, almost in slow motion, an awareness of the heat necessary for life.

 

Impresario

Fahid Taghavi

Julia DeCooker

juliadecooker.com

Julia de Cooker was born in Paris in 1988. From a very young age she decided to become a photographer.

It was at the age of 14 that she received her first SLR as a gift, as well as the installation of her

first darkroom. Spending entire days developing his photographs, his passion grew.

After her baccalaureate in literature, languages ​​(English-Russian) and arts, she left her hometown to

settling in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she began a Bachelor in photography at ECAL (Ecole Cantonale

of Art of Lausanne). During her studies she also discovered a great interest in cinema and directed

then for final work, a short fiction film “Out on the prairie”. In July 2012,

before starting a Master in Cinema (directing), she participated in residence at the photographic festival

“Contact Board(s)” from Deauville, France. She currently lives and works in Geneva,

Switzerland, where she continues her personal work, most recently “Svalbard, an Arcticficial Life”.

 

A word from the artist:

'Svalbard, an arctic life'

The Svalbard archipelago, lost in the Arctic Ocean at 78°N, surprised me by

its variety. I went there, eager to discover this wild land where Man has

installed only a little over a hundred years ago. Through my project “Svalbard,

an Arcticficial Life” I wanted to present the surprising and atypical society that I have there

discovery and its majestic landscapes that surround it. I went to all three

towns, mining origins, curious about their differences. Barentsburg, last stop

Russian land, retained its mining activity, while the other two changed

vocation, Ny-Ålesund, international scientific research base, Longyearbyen,

the capital, modern, home to a large university and where tourism is

develops rapidly. In this small inhabited space, the inventory of the elements that are there

found is very rich and contrasting: war remains, coal mines, huts

trappers, traces of animal life, Norwegian and Russian dwellings, or installations

scientists, the sample is large.

Is the presence of a limousine so surprising, in a place where schools

carry out evacuation drills in the event of a visit from a polar bear, where the priest

travels by helicopter, and where the houses so close to the North Pole are built

with balconies?

When I arrived in Svalbard, the first question everyone asked was

very revealing for me about the way people live there: “For how many

time are you there?” Indeed, wherever it may be, Svalbard is a place

of passage. A temporary living space. Besides, except for accidents, no one is born or

don't die on this earth! In this ocean of snow and ice, I liked discovering these

cities with warm colors. Grouped together, the inhabitants protect themselves from this nature

powerful force that surrounds them and takes care of each other. They are alone together

in this immensity of white, and I felt a great solidarity there. Little paradise

social, due to the respect that reigns there, Longyearbyen is like a bubble. A bubble

of oxygen, a bubble of freedom. When we leave it, we miss it and we go back

quickly. We talk about “viruses”, as if taken by something, possessed by these landscapes

extraordinary and their peaceful inhabitants. Fall in love. In this nature

dominant and hostile which reminds humans of their place.