Evans Mbugua is a Kenyan visual artist based in Paris. His artistic vocabulary is richly colourful and aims to foreground differences and similarities through the use of repeated pictograms. Recently Mbugua created a body of works at Atelier Le Grand Village – a studio that focuses on stone lithography. Guided by the Atelier’s director Francis van der Riet and printmaker/artist Niall Bingham,  Mbugua explored lithography for the first time. Nadège Besnard Roussel met him and spoke about his creative process and experience at Atelier le Grand Village

Nadège: Evans, could you introduce yourself and tell us more about your work?

Evans: I was born in Kenya and grew up in Nairobi. When I was 19 years old, I arrived in France, where my sister lives, to study at the Beaux-Arts in Pau. My hometown Nairobi is a very cosmopolitan city. My childhood and adolescence was punctuated by encounters with people of different origins. Coming to France was like an adventure for me. In order to learn French, I met people from different backgrounds. Once again I found myself in the same pattern of experiencing differences and similarities. As for my work, it resembles a quest for things that link us across borders.

N: Your work is visually rich and consists of an accumulation of pictograms in the background with a central character. What does this mean to you?

E: There are always these very important elements in my work: the pictogram and the dot. Indeed, at the beginning there is an element that I will multiply until I find the form I like. The background of my works is based on a pictogram that repeats so that it becomes a motif. These ideas I collect during my various trips or travels and is what I started to do at the Beaux-Arts. The idea was to find a visual language inspired by textiles and traditional motifs, such as tattoos or scarifications, from around the world. Pictograms are the link between all the characters in my works.  

N: And how do you choose the subject?

E: The portraits I paint represent people who are close to me in one way or another. They can be long term relationships or individuals I’ve just met in different places and with whom I spent some pleasant moments. I simply want to keep a memory of these encounters which then constitutes an archive of the best moments of my life. For the portrait, I always start with a dot and it is an accumulation of dots that will vibrate together so that the portrait can be seen on the plexiglass. The starting dot represents an individual and it is the accumulation of these dots that will create the portrait. 

N: How did you meet Francis van der Riet, the director of Atelier le Grand Village – And  how did the idea of working there come about?

E: I met Francis at the 1-54 Art Fair in London where I discovered Atelier le Grand Village. Some time later Francis contacted me to exchange ideas and we met at my studio in Paris. Francis invited me to come during the summer of 2020 to practise and discover lithography at his studio.

N: How was this first experience? Was it the first time you encountered lithography and the printmaking techniques used at Atelier le Grand Village?

E: I went to the studio without any knowledge of these techniques. The stay allowed me to learn lithography for the first time and to encounter new materials, textures, and scents in an environment completely different from the one I work in. I committed myself all the way for this new adventure, thanks to the expertise of Francis and Niall . Both of them patiently taught me the techniques involved in working with lithography and monotypes. This allowed me to discover new things, and new processes. I loved this opportunity at Atelier le Grand Village, and I remember my father’s words: “life is a school”.

N: What was the influence of Atelier le Grand Village in your artistic approach and the direction of the works created at the studio?

E: There are always recurring elements in my work. What interests me is to see how these will interact and vibrate together side by side, as a conjugation of the full and the empty.

There is a history of transparency, superimposition and colour in my work. At Atelier le Grand Village I played with these elements which are fundamental and transposed them into a new technique. For my portraits, the point has been transformed into a line. In my other works, the background is created with the help of a computer and it remains constant.  It is the portrait which varies for each different work.

At the studio, I opted for a constant character, the lithograph component, and I chose to diversify the backgrounds, using monotype hence rendering each work unique. During my stay, I found new angles for my work.

My backgrounds are inspired by the elements that surrounded me. In particular, I used threads that came from the weaving workshop of the textile artist and designer Côme Touvay, whose studio is next to the lithography studio. I borrowed threads, textures and fibers that I integrated into my works. I have also integrated the motifs of the carpets and tapestries around the house. All these inspirations come from the environment and even more from my discussions with Côme, Francis or Niall.

N: What is this series of works about? What was your creative approach this time and how did it come about? Can you tell us more about it?

E: It’s a series that comes after a very particular period, the lockdown. We were suspended in time for several months, and that’s when I decided to reevaluate the importance of colour in my work. Colour is emotion. There is a search for emotions that I wanted to interpret.

The choice of bright colours for this series represents an explosion, a desire to live, to go beyond. The gesture of tearing the paper to create the motifs can be seen as a rupture and a desire for a new start. These portraits all have big smiles on their faces. It is always a message of hope that I try to convey.

The characters represent not only a person but a family, a community and a society. I hope for a society that lives in harmony and seeks to share things together; emotions, joys and even fears. This ability to live together requires work but it always starts with a point or a line. This is where my interest lies.

Nadège (to Niall Bingham, visiting printmaker at Atelier le Grand Village): Niall, you came to Atelier le Grand Village as a printmaker, how did you meet Francis van der Riet, the director, for the first time ? 

Niall: I met Francis through Diane Victor, who I have worked with on etching projects in the past in South Africa. She connected us because she felt that we could possibly work together.

Nadège: Tell me about your collaboration with Evans Mbugua at the studio?

Niall: Evans is an artist who I feel inherently understands the medium of printmaking, even though this is his first time in a studio. I was very surprised that he had never made prints before, especially given how quickly he picked up the skills. Our biggest challenge was to find a way to successfully reinterpret the repeated patterns that he uses in his paintings.  I was reluctant to allow him to fall back on commercial printing, I wanted him to find a way to activate the areas around his figures using the resources available to us in the print studio. The first day was quite a challenge, but I do feel that once he found ways of stencilling, he was able to develop his practice in an interesting way.

He found a rhythm very quickly, and I could tell that he was really enjoying himself.  Print studios are supposed to challenge artists through sometimes slightly uncomfortable limitations. 

Nadège: You have stayed a few weeks in the Charente-Limousine to print lithographs, how did you work together with Francis and also with Evans. What do you think about this studio situated in this beautiful area and particularly what the director Francis brings to the artists ?

Niall: Yes, I stayed for just over 7 weeks, but it felt much shorter. To tell you the honest truth, it’s the best thing that has happened to me in a while. I was able to completely disconnect from the apocalyptic ‘virus world’ and focus solely on my work. Francis and I have a very good understanding because we come from a similar part of the world, and I believe we had a similar kind of upbringing. I think my experience there is perhaps a great example of what Le Grand Village offers: a refuge from everything else. A space to focus entirely on what it is you chose to focus on. It is a quiet meditative space which, if respected, can provide the artist and the printmaker with the perfect space to create. 

I am very grateful for the time I have spent at the Atelier, and I hope to be returning in September.

Francis van der Riet is a lithographer and director of Atelier le Grand Village. Niall Bingham is a printmaker/artist and was head of the printmaking department at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.  He came to work in the studio with Francis after the lockdown. He currently lives in Spain.

The post In Conversation with Evans Mbugua at Atelier le Grand Village appeared first on Artskop.

Nadège: Mongezi, you have come regularly to Atelier Le Grand Village these last five years. How do you feel when you come to the studio here?

Mongezi: It is peaceful, it is just nice, quiet, like a retreat. I come here to clear my mind, to work on lithography and other different mediums. I come here for a new start to explore new ideas, see how things develop. It’s a great place to work.

Nadège: What about the studio?

Mongezi: I like the feel of the studio. It is unlike any other studio where I have worked. Here it is the countryside. There is the barn which has evolved into a studio, combined with the flowers, the garden, and some old rustic stuff. I’m not used to such things, I’m a town boy, a city boy. I am used to things in the city. It is a relief to be here away from the city. The air is different here. Francis now has installed the old press; it seems part of the environment. Why I like coming here is because we focus on stone lithography, which is more traditional. This is one the main reasons I like coming here, I like the stone. We go back in time to make stuff the traditional way.

Nadège: Tell me what are your main influences in your work now?

Mongezi: I studied abstract, I used to paint and to make representational works, but I grew up with a lot of musicians listening to jazz. I would be in my studio listening to music, most of the time, loud. At some point I was working and suddenly my mind shifted. Instead of just working listening to music, I did something with regard to what the music was doing to me right then. I wanted to translate this and that’s why I started creating abstracts. I always wanted to do music and painting, I wanted to incorporate both into my work. Music is also about feelings and I want to express this.

Mongezi: Where I grew up also influences me. I grew up in a small town that used to be a small mining town in Benoni, east of Johannesburg. My personal history, my family history, the history of the town, the South African history, these are main influences which have got me to where I am now. Even though my work has changed from the representational, it still has the same content that I started with. The mining, the history, the displacement and the migration, these are all issues translated into abstraction. These are issues I still think about and it is something I am still exploring.

Nadège: What about the places where you work?

Mongezi: I like to work in different places, different places produce different works. Here at Atelier le Grand Village it is quiet. The environment dictates what kind of work comes out. In Jo’burg, it is busy. Currently I am working from Cape Town but I never work only from one place. All my works from the past five or seven years come from different places: Jo’burg, Cape Town, Atelier le Grand Village in France, the Netherlands and the United States. My family also live in several places. I can go to see my grandmum and then decide to go and see my cousins or my friends. That’s why my works deals with the movement, the mapping.

Nadège: Can you explain the titles of your art works?

Mongezi: There is something poetic about them. There is so much meaning in my titles. How do they come up? Sometimes it comes up with the objects I am working with, something I have seen. Sometimes a sound in the surroundings. It’s about how I feel about the work and other things that happen. My work can be about my history, but it is also about ideas that I have, that happen. There are so many things happening in my mind while working. Because I don’t work on one piece each day, the next day I can feel differently. My mind is occupied with lots of thoughts.

There is this title ‘Roundabout idiot’ – I was travelling with Francis in Angouleme and there were many roundabouts. When we came back to the studio, I was working on a stone lithograph which required so many layers in order to appear complete. I felt like I was going round and round, like an idiot. Just a simple thing and that’s how that title came about.

There is ‘La forme des choses à venir’ from a stone lithograph created in 2015. This means ‘The shape of things to come’ and is adapted from one of my favourite jazz composers, Ornett Coleman. This is my first stone lithograph ever made in France, when I started working with Francis. It was like a new start of things.

Nadège: Do you think about a body of work before coming to Atelier le Grand Village, or do you let your instinct guide what you create?

Mongezi: I realise that if I work instinctively, the work has more feeling. If I think too much before, it become a bit stiff. It could be nice but you don’t really feel the movement, the flow, it is more spontaneous. It is also having to do with TRUST, trust your instinct, be yourself. I felt I should sketch, but finally thought it’s not right for me. If I instinctively do everything, I feel something. I don’t know what it is. I give a few minutes and then it just goes POP. It’s about how I feel in the moment when I am working, how I feel right now. I think I have more a recipe for working, but I don’t think I have a formula because then my work would all be the same. I always try to discover new things when I’m working.

It’s not only about painting or making something that I know, it’s also about discovering new things like a shape, or a mark. Its more about searching. My works are like maps, searching where you are going, allowing yourself to receive things, allowing yourself to be exposed to something new. Instinct is important. You have a map, you are going to a place you don’t know, maybe you have to jump or to swim, and you are scared but you do it. The map was right, and you look at what you discover. Open yourself up to your inner self, this is the unknown of your inner being, the other aspect of yourself that you don’t know. To see the unknown, you need to open up, and evolve so that we can be better people – the self-discovery, and it goes forward.

These feelings you cannot ignore and this reflects in the work. Tomorrow I might feel differently and then I reflect on my mood yesterday. So, the next day, the map will be different. Feeling is important. You just let yourself free, you don’t dance for people, you dance for the inner self.

Nadège: You won recently this prize at the INVESTEC Cape Town Art Fair, then you have 1:54 in London with Atelier le Grand Village, Lagos Art Fair, plus other residencies and shows planned after that. How do you feel about all this and these expectations?

Mongezi: It is overwhelming. It is like a pressure but I don’t like to feel it is like that. I just want to feel, have time to just ‘flan’. I know the dates and I like the pressure but I don’t like to panic. Yes, it is so many things, but all great things. I’m glad and happy. I have worked hard, and I’m recognized. I just have to do it, I chose to work hard, I strive to excel, so if you want to be on top you must know it’s hard. You must face the music. I appreciate everyone that I’ve worked with and that have supported me. Also giving me the platform to showcase my work. I keep doing better that I was doing some years ago.

Nadège: When did you start to work on printmaking?

Mongezi: It’s more than ten years. Making prints is part of me, I cannot live without it. I always have the need to make prints. For me printmaking is not about taking my paintings and translating them into prints. If I paint something, if I do a print, it is what it is. They are separate. If you talk about printmaking, you are not doing a reproduction. Some clients are not really well informed about printmaking. They do not understand the complexity, the work and the inspiration that goes into them. You will not find a print that resembles my painting.

Nadège: I am proud to be representing you with Atelier le Grand Village at 1:54 in London in October, with Diane Victor and Bambo Sibiya.

Mongezi: I’m honoured to be part of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair London 2019. We will see what the works comes out for this during this residency at Atelier le Grand Village. I am looking for a twist, I think it is going to be exciting.

Nadège (to Francis van der Riet, Director of Atelier le Grand Village): When and why did you choose to work with the artist Mongezi Ncaphayi?

Francis: It was 2014. Mongezi Ncaphayi was the winner of the Gerard Sekoto prize in South Africa. I was interested in this prize and the people who won it. Mongezi is also a printmaker. His works were unusual because they are abstract. South African artists tend to be, on the whole, figurative. I had seen Mongezi’s etchings and I thought they had potential and I approached him to propose that we work together at the studio and that he learn stone lithography. I knew he had not done any stone lithography previously. I also appreciated Mongezi’s sense of spontaneity, the combination with music and the way he uses colours. In stone lithography, colour can be important and it is very well suited for that.

Mongezi accepted the invitation and it started from there. The more we work together, the more there is a synergy between us. He’s comes back regularly in the studio.

Nadège: How did it initially work out?

Francis: We started two works and this evolved into a larger body of works. He liked the process of stone lithography. Here at Atelier le Grand Village, I showed him books from others artists, abstract artists/printmakers such as Hans Hartung and others who work at the studio as well. I think the combination of stone lithography with the surroundings of the studio helped him to free up his way of working. It was fairly precise and the stone forced him to free up, to be more spontaneous.

The stone does not forgive so you have to go ahead and just do it. I think that helped him to progress towards his paintings. Here at the studio he accomplished a large body of work which was subsequently exhibited for a solo show with ABSA in South Africa.

Nadège: Tell me more about 1:54 in London this October?

Francis: 1-54 discovered Atelier le Grand Village last year. They were surprised to find us in this remote corner in the south-west of France, and to find artists they knew about had come to work here. They came to visit and consequently invited us as a ‘special project’ for the London 1:54 Art Fair in October this year. I suggested we exhibit Mongezi together with Diane Victor and Bambo Sibiya. On show there will be printmaking works, mainly stone lithography. We are very focused on reviving the art of stone lithography here. We also do mono prints, lino prints and we like to combine the different media. There will also be a few other works on display that have been created by the artists during their stay here at Atelier le Grand Village, notably the smoke drawings of Diane Victor.

Nadège: What about the other artists that come to Atelier le Grand Village?

Francis: I like to think that the studio has created for itself its own portfolio of artwork from the artists that have been here. It is important for the studio to have a rich diversity, and so it needs different types of work. We have figurative, abstract, black and white, colour, loose and exact registration, landscape, portraits…. Amongst our abstract artists there is Valentin Stefanoff from Paris, the Franco Brazilian Celia Eid, and Mongezi from South Africa. That gives the richness to the studio. Hence the studio also influences the artists that come here. That’s exciting. You feel that the artist and the studio give and take with each other. The one give inspiration from the other and vice versa.

Nadège: You are also a lithographer?

Francis: I am the master printer of this studio, Atelier le Grand Village. I started the studio around ten years ago but I have been interested in lithography for a long time. Once I had set up the studio I realised that I should share it with other artists. I grew up in Zimbabwe and in South Africa, and it seemed obvious to invite people from there. They love to come here. I think it helps that I understand where they come from and that they feel comfortable here. That’s important.

Nadège: How do you work with Mongezi?

Francis: We work as a duo. I do a certain amount of printmaking. As Mongezi adores printmaking, he participates as well in the process. Above all he creates the drawings on the stones, but he helps as well with the graining of the stones and the rest of the printing process. The studio has a collection of inks, and we dialogue about the different colours. The garden is also very inspirational for the colours we use here.

Nadège: So, you work a lot with the surroundings and the garden?

Francis: Very much so, I think the colours are inspired from here, depending of course what time of the year it is. Mongezi has been here at different times of the year, including winter. This is a big influence, and I would like to think that he could not produce the same type of work somewhere else. I think you can see which works of his come from Atelier le Grand Village. Mongezi and the other artists feel at home here. It’s not about coming one time but more about building a relationship. Printmaking, especially stone lithography, needs time.

Atelier le Grand Village will be presenting new works from Mongezi Ncaphayi, Diane Victor and Bambo Sibiya during 1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair 2019 in London. Please contact Atelier le Grand Village for further information or visit 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London (3-6 October 2019).

Atelier le Grand Village
7, le Grand Village
16310, Massignac
www.legrandvillage.net
instagram: atelierlegrandvillage

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Artskop3437: Diane, thank you for receiving me in this beautiful Atelier le Grand Village. Would you say you’re a happy person?

Diane Victor : Thank you first of all for coming. I really do see myself as a very positive person. I do… I think it is a privilege to be an artist, which is almost impossible not to be, and I certainly am a happy person. Perhaps, I make work that is quite serious and I look at serious issues, but it is very necessary, for me to make these images. I cannot solve the world but I can make images that expose issues and perhaps raise awareness to situations. This is important to me. But it doesn’t make me an unhappy person.

To be here at Le Grand Village, is wonderful. As you say it is a break from Joburg, and the hectic rush, the teaching, my studio, stuff, and the traffic. And it is always really good to come and work here.

Artskop3437: So you say it’s your fourth time here?

DV: Yes. Four times.

Artskop3437: What makes you want to come back?

DV: I enjoy working here very much. I like working with Francis and the printers that he brings over and the chance that you can focus. I think you’d know that it is a lot more difficult to focus in the city where you live… because there are always people saying: Oh would you do this for me? Or there is a student who says “Oh you must come and look at my work”; this is good, but to focus on your own, … a new body of work, it’s necessary to get some distance; and it’s so beautiful here.

Artskop3437: Yes it is. Especially in summer. When the nature is gorgeous.

DV : It’s so green, we never have this green, it’s Europe green, not South African green. It’s … every time you look up it’s like whaouah it’s like you’re fade with your eyes with the richness of the landscape. It’s really good. So yes, it’s a great place to work.

At the Atelier le Grand Village, Côme Touvey, a textile designer, and Diane Victor made a woven picture. Touvay created a large woven textile, 100% linen, based on Diane Victor’s smoke drawing. The textile is entirely woven thanks in particular to the manipulation of 70 shades of grey. It is this technique which made it possible to weave Diane Victor’s drawing. It is woven, it is not a tapestry and this make this piece very special. This kind of collaboration, with diverse techniques from various artistic practices is what Victor really appreciates and one of the main reasons she keeps coming back to Atelier le Grand Village. She learns from other artists in the atelier. “There is always an exchange”, says Victor.

Francis van der Riet, the founder of the Atelier le Grand Village, told me that the idea of the woven picture came to him during a discussion with textile designer Touvay. This was obvious, because Touvay’s weavings are works of art in themselves. Done by hand, thread after thread, it takes hours and hours of work. One might think that Diane Victor’s drawing was printed, but it is a woven picture, 320 by 300 cm woven yarn by yarn with its multitude of shades of grey.

Artskop3437: Your work is indeed very serious. It speaks about different issues in society(ies) such as women’s marginalization, civil war, animals, human condition and behaviors…

D.V : Very much social conditions, human conditions, yes.

Artskop3437: They are very strong issues indeed. And when we look at your art, it’s really black and white, monochrome…

D.V: It’s graphic. It’s about strong issues and I try to make strong images. Yes. One lives in a country that has a lot of problems, and certainly they are improving and things get better but many issues do not have as much exposure as I think they should have. So, if I deal with violence against women, where there is horrendous case of violence very often within relationships, partners killing their wives or their girlfriends. These things make me very angry. When I’m angry, my way of solving my anger or trying to deal with it is to make an image. It’s almost like a child almost. You draw what you cannot…not what you cannot understand…, but by drawing something, you think about the process. The process of drawing allows me to think through the issues and to produce something that perhaps raises awareness in the public that not everybody knows or wants to acknowledge it. For me this is the worst.

Artskop3437: Indifference …

D.V: Yes, indifference. For me this is the worst.

Artskop3437 : One of the thing you hate the most…

D.V: Indifference makes me so angry. The thing I hate the most. I would rather make a work that make someone else angry. At least they react and that makes them think. If they come and they say “Oh that’s nice”…then I know I’ve done the wrong thing. So, I try to import this thinking to the people that I teach as well. “To be responsible for the images you produce”. Because you leave something that somebody else will look at.

Artskop3437: Should Art tell something in our world?

D.V: For me it’s important. Not for everyone.

Artskop3437: You’re not systematically into the research of the aesthetic vision of a work ?

D.V: An aesthetic component is important. Because you wish to tell something, but the best way is to produce an image that people are attracted to. If it’s a post, they’ll think “Oh, I’ve heard this before”. If it’s too violent, or too aggressive, many people’s defence system comes in and they’ll react “No”. So, I am tying work with an aesthetic that gives pleasure in the image. When you look as a viewer, you’re engaging, looking, observing and asking questions. You see something and ask, “Oh what is this? “.

Perhaps if they are interested enough, then they will read more or they’ll will find something else and go deeper… so it’s a more subtle way of raising an issue. Without not being like a photograph in the newspaper or on the TV. People often think “Oh no I don’t want to know this, it makes me depressed”. It’s good to think about these things. So I try to raise awareness combining aesthetic elements as well. And I take pleasure in the work I make. I cannot lie. I enjoy drawing. I take great pleasure. So, it’s a way to try to deal with things that makes me angry. It makes me feel positive too to do that.

Artskop3437: I heard you said once that when you are not angry you feel like you are a useless artist

D.V: haha… I am a useless artist when I am not angry. If I am happy, there is no energy. It is strange to explain it. But with anger there is focus. When I am happy, really I rather go to party, or I want go and walk outside. But if there is something that I cannot sleep because it makes me angry or bites me, that is when I am going to draw.

Artskop3437: And you need to do something with this anger

D.V: Yeah. And I have to say that sometimes, I am sitting in traffic in the car, and you hear something on the radio, and you think “Oh, really that’s crazy”. Then I make a drawing in the car while I am sitting in the traffic so that I remember the intensity of that energy.

Artskop3437: There are also a lot of wild animals in you work most of the time. Crocodile, and most recently a gorilla. Actually there is a gorilla you made here at the Atelier le Grand Village in a smoke drawing

D.V: Yes. It is a smoke drawing.

Artskop3437: Can you tell me more about the work ?

D.V: I am interested in the animal qualities in humans. Because we are all animals to an extent…. It is often a way of representing how people think or how they relates to animals. The violence against the animals as well. Gorillas are amazing. They are incredibly intelligent. I’ve been doing recently a lot of reading about the history and prehistory, and the evolution, and they are really just cousins. They are part of the family of man.

Artskop3437 : You’re talking about Darwin’s theory of evolution ?

D.V : Yeah. Very much this. They are part of the family of man. They are brothers. We are so responsible for the destruction of the natural areas, many in central Africa. Where chimpanzee and gorillas come from. It is really bad.  It’s also reflects the violence that is in our societies. I try to use images of animals as a way of mediating that and saying that animals are part of our nature. They are part of our human nature. How we react to them, and how we become sometimes the bad part of an animal when we are angry or when too much violence is happening.

Also, because I grew up with animals. I was very fortunate to grow up on a small little farm, a little space with cats, dogs, horses…and …they are important to me but it’s also a metaphor for what society does.

Artskop3437:  Is that a particular reason why you choose to draw the gorilla with the technique of smoke drawings ?

D.V: Because they are vulnerable. They are …Perhaps if there is not enough done to protect that species. Smoke… you cannot fix it. It is permanent because it is soot. But if you touch it, it’s gone. That for me, makes the medium very much the part of what I am saying. They are like ghosts…

If you do not actually make an effort, to do something they’re lost. But the medium also is for me really great to work with. As you cannot control it so well, so you sort of follow the smoke. It’s like tracking. You have not that much control. I like to work with mediums where, the medium also expects from you. I also do etchings and with etching you put a mark and then the mark is there. But not with smoke or ash, I do ash as well, you must be more flexible. It teaches me to be more fluid and adaptive.

Artskop3437: So in a way, it is also a life metaphor, cause in life one needs to adapt and to go with the flow. ..

D.V:  Exactly. And I love the fact that the medium speaks, tells me what it wants. It is a dialogue between your hand and the material.

Artskop3437: When did you start drawing with the smoke?

D.V: 2001, nearly twenty years.

Artskop3437: is that a technique you developed?

D.V: Other people works with smoke but not with free hands. They make smoke flat for example. I use my technique of upside drawing. I was working in the university in the Eastern Cape, and I was asked to make work for an exhibition looking into issues around HIV. I was thinking what can I bring that is new?  I was at one of my teaching courses, working on alternatives methods of drawing and a student had a candle, and she was saying “Oh I cannot use this” then I said “Look, you can draw”. .. and the student didn’t, saying, “it was too difficult, it doesn’t work for me”.

D.V: So, I produced this body of work in the Eastern Cape. It is a very poor area, there is a lot of poverty and there was a very high rate of HIV transmission. My proposal was to do 40 portraits of people who agreed to allow me to do their portraits with smoke. Because their lives are so fragile and vulnerable, smoke was an appropriate medium. Because the soot is very sticky, and you can’t touch it, I stored them in pizza boxes. I remember I looked like a pizza delivery person. Different candles give different smoke. The cheaper and the more paraffin they have, the better.

In the car while Victor and I were on the way to her demonstration of smoke drawing at the exhibition in Nontron, of which she is part,  she told me that she used to run. This was before her kidney transplant. Now she walks a lot. She misses her runs but the doctor still does not recommend that she starts again. I was also intrigued on how she got involved into her art and her art career, whether she was predestined to this. She confesses that her father, a very strict man, wanted her to study dentistry. At this time, at university, art and specially drawing, was for her an option class. Her father passed away from polycystic kidney disease. This in a way allowed her to follow the art route. Otherwise she would probably have become a dentist.

Diane victor will stay in the Atelier le Grand Village  for about a month to finish a series of works started during her last visit, and start a new body of work.

Atelier le Grand Village
7 le Grand Village
16310, Massignac
www.legrandvillage.net
Instagram @atelierlegrandvillage

The post In conversation with Diane Victor at Atelier le Grand Village appeared first on Artskop.

In the middle of the Charente Limousine countryside, two passionate artists have set up their workshops. The exhibition offers a dialogue between the lithographic works created by Francis van der Riet and international artists at Atelier le Grand Village and the textile designs of Côme Touvay.

Francis van der Riet, a master printer, founded Atelier le Grand Village which gradually became an ideal workshop, combining presses and state-of-the-art tools. He invites artists in residence to the studio to produce lithographic prints. The exhibition presents an overview of the lithographic works created at Atelier le Grand Village over the past ten years by international artists such as :

Diane Victor (South Africa)

Diane Victor lives in Gouteng, South Africa. In 1988, she was awarded the prestigious “ABSA Atelier” prize and became one of South Africa’s most respected artists. His work is in numerous private and public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. Her contribution to the art of stampmaking in South Africa is immense and she teaches it in several fine arts schools.

NINA Kovacheva (Bulgaria)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, NINA lives and works in Paris. She is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with Valentin Stefanoff). She exhibits her works in France, the United States, China, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the Esterhazy Collection, the European Bank, the National Women’s Museum in Washington, the National Library of France, the National Art Gallery in Sofia… NINA Kovacheva is a versatile artist. She draws on the resources of video, photography and drawing, among others. NINA shows a constant interest in the body as an evasive object and its conflicting aspects: men and women, nature and culture, life and death.

Valentin Stefanoff (Bulgaria)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Valentin lives and works in Paris. He is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with NINA Kovacheva). Valentin exhibits his works in France, the United States, China, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the European Bank, the MoCA in Taipei, the Horsecross Collection in the United Kingdom, the Museum for the “New Arts” in Detroit, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Galerie d’Art Nationale in Sofia.

Michael Barnes (United-States)

Michael Barnes, American artist, lives in Illinois where he studied at the Beaux-Arts. Professor at the University of Illinois, he has been teaching Printmaking since 1998. He participates in the juries of international print competitions. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Belgium, Finland and Estonia. His art is conceived as a social and political critique, associating objects that surround him with imaginary characters. In the lithographs made at the Atelier le Grand Village, we find objects found in the garden and the workshop of the place called “le Grand Village”.

Aaron Coleman (United-States)

American artist, Aaron Coleman lives in Arizona. He studied at the Fine Arts School in Illinois. Professor at the University of Arizona, he teaches Printmaking. His artistic work uses stampmaking in all its forms and deals with socio-political themes. He combines comic book images and stained glass windows with hip-hop influences to challenge our beliefs and moral values. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Russia and Japan.

Bambo Sibiya (South Africa)

Bambo is a South African artist from Kwa Thema, Springs near Johannesburg. He studied art at Benoni Technical College. He then trained in the art of stamp-making at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize, he received a residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris. He then met Francis van der Riet and began to study lithography. The origin of the “Swenkas” dates back to the apartheid era: workers who were looking for work in big cities wanted to impress their families and neighbours by dressing in beautiful costumes and behaving with good manners when they returned home. They met to organize style contests. Swenkas follow rules such as cleanliness, sobriety and above all self-respect.

Mongezi Ncaphayi (South Africa)

Mongezi is a South African artist from Benoni, near Johannesburg. He studied art at Ekurhuleni East College. He learned the art of printmaking at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg and then at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize in 2013, he is going to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. In 2019, he won the “Africa First Art prize”. It is on this occasion that the Atelier le Grand Village published and printed a series of lithographs.

Pauline Gutter (South Africa)

Born in South Africa, Pauline studied at the Bloemfontein School of Fine Arts in the Free State. Winner of the ABSA l’Atelier prize, she went to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. She then worked with the Atelier le Grand Village, which published a series of lithographs on the theme of “Post Colonialism”, a theme she also addressed in painting and video.

Celia Eid (France, Brazil)

Born in Brazil, Celia is now living in Paris. Her pictorial, graphic and videographic work is imbued with a very strong musical sensitivity. Her videos have been shown in several festivals in France and around the world. Her Internet animation, “Se tais, si ça vous chante”, won the prize for best interactive film at the Flux 2005 festival.

Côme Touvay

Côme Touvay, textile designer, specialized in both artisanal and industrial weaving, presents personal creations and research: DIAMONES an installation of 15 three-dimensional mini-textiles, “the curtain of the night” created for CODE DE NUIT, SAMA a project based on a reflection on the graphic sign, language and otherness. A collection that seeks to show the variety of forms and expressions that can be found in weaving in the broadest sense.

Touvay is a winner of the Grand prix de la création de la ville de Paris in 2006, he is also co-author of the collection Nuée for which he receives the Van de Velde prize in Belgium. He works for Hermès, Cartier, Rochas, Renault design. Professor at the ENSCI and then at the ENSAD, he now devotes himself to the creation of unique pieces on the border between design and art. His creations are the result of a work combining a wide range of materials from the simplest to the most sophisticated: straw, paper, hemp, linen, silk, metal, plastic, cotton, acrylic, ramie…

To complete this dialogue, an exceptional piece woven in partnership with the Belgian manufacturer VERILIN will be shown to the public. It is a skilful work of textile structures allowing a restitution in 70 shades of grey to reveal all the subtleties of a Diane Victor’s work. Finally, the audience will be immersed in the atmosphere of the workshops, in the presence of a lithographic press, called a horned beast, and a loom.

Exhibition “GRAND VILLAGE – Lithographies et Tissages” – lithographs and weavings –
From March 30 to June 10
Opening Friday, March 29 at 6pm
Château, av. du Général Leclerc 24300 NONTRON – France

Opening hours and days
Monday to Saturday – 10am-1pm and 2pm-6pm
Free and free admission.

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