Natures mortes is an original series of events based on a unifying theme, designed to bring together contemporary works with the collections of the Musée des Beaux-arts and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Troye.
After series of portraits, both individual and collective (Cyclists, Those with Faith…), Véronique Ellena turned to landscapes and still lifes in 2006. Her work, produced with the patient technique of the darkroom, begs the question of its relationship with painting and the still-life tradition.
What does it mean to depict still lifes today?
The proposed events explore the relationship between the arts and between eras. The idea is to showcase works from the museums of Troyes, which do not retrace the full diversity of the still-life genre, but which do offer similarities with photographic compositions. Véronique Ellena explains that “the fundamental idea of the series is to seek out that place, that moment of transition, for the space of an instant, between life and death. It’s also about showing a mysterious, sad and cruel beauty head-on. The trace of the passage of time is also the subject of Alexandre Joly’s sculptures. Taxidermy attempts to preserve the appearance of the bird’s life, while its flight, naturally invisible, is materialized here by absorbent cotton. The traces both underline the animal’s movement and denounce its illusion. Elsewhere, sounds and feathers deployed as shields (Le Repos du guerrier) track the presence/absence of animal life.
Press release : : click here
The exhibition is open to the public from September 17 to November 05, 2010.
