A conversation with French artist Céline Ahond whose work—from video and objects to performance and collaborative acts—questions the place of the individual, power relations, the territory, and the eventuality of freedom.
Céline Ahond discusses the issues involved in moving performance towards exhibition and how that brings out a desire to write. For this fifth title in the “Digressions” series, Céline Ahond returns to her great obsessions: presence, skill, movement, encountering the Other, and the way in which these are questioned by the creation of an exhibition. The conversation with Julie Pellegrin leads to fragments of reflection on the desire for writing, per se, discussed with Anne Kawala, Sophie Lapalu, Elodie Petit, and Lidwine Prolonge.
Digressions is a series of conversations with artists. Initiated by La Ferme du Buisson Centre for Contemporary Art in association with Captures editions, the series accompanies the art centre's exhibition programme. Taking as their starting point a group discussion, these publications offer an insight into the thinking, the references, the methods—and sometimes the meanderings—that fuel a creative process.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Au pied du mur, au pied de la lettre” at the Ferme du Buisson, Marne-la-Vallée, from April 22 to July 22, 2018.
The distinctive practice of Céline Ahond (born 1979 in Clermont-Ferrand, lives and works in Montreuil) finds expression in art venues, books and public spaces—in the form of collective experiences. She drew critical attention in the early 2000s with performance-lecturess involving narratives of all kinds, printed and projected images, video systems and presentations of objects. She followed up with “film performances” with evocative titles like You See What I Mean?, What Film Are We Living in? and Playing at Really Pretending. On the fine line between documentary and zany fiction, these are real-fake reconstructions whose role-playing blurs identities and the relationship between the real and the imaginary. Ahond is a past master in constructing situations that open up territories for action, speaking out and inventing a specific language; and in doing so she explores the way “the encounter generates art”.
