Fields surrounding Turin, conjunction of a horizon and an echo chamber
Isabelle Cornaro transforms an Italian landscape in a minimalist way using two mediums. Fields surrounding Turin, conjunction of a horizon and an echo chamber consists of a series of vertical strips of white paper into which are inserted thin strands of twisted human hair. These map topographical elements reduced to a few curves arranged in space. The contrast between the whiteness of the landscape-format paper and the tactile materiality of the hair gives this work a poetic character. Like musical notes placed on a blank score, the curls evoke a certain sensuality that borders on sentimentality. Here, Isabelle Cornaro demonstrates the ambivalence between concrete and conceptual. Removing objects, such as these cut locks, from their usual function transforms the way they are perceived. The artist seeks to put them within reach, but by severing the hair from its root, she turns it into an allegory that describes an abstract relationship to the world, echoing the question of narrative evoked by continuous processes of composition and recomposition. The action here becomes movements and oscillations in the wind of the Italian fields.
Text written by Manon Prévost-Van Dooren as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibition
La Galerie des Galeries, Paris (France)
from 20 Oct 2009 to 09 Jan 2010