Author: Alice

Reportage France 3

Photos de la Tour aux rêves d'enfants

Video France 3 dans l'atelier

From October 2009 to February 2010, I stayed as an artist in reisdency with the “Fondation d’Auteuil”.
I chose to stay in one of those “houses” for teenagers placed by the  social services to understand better what it was like to grow in such a place. The question of intimacy, love, motivation and confidence in such a collective place caught my attention and I suggested to work on a “dreamt bedroom” for each of the 12 participants. The 12 models where then put together in a 3, 70 m. high “dancing”, mirrored Tower: “the tower of the children’s dreams” (La Tour aux rêves d’enfants). 

Video 

 

INSTALLATION 1:Theater of light and shadows ephemeral installation

INSTALLATION 2:OMBRES DE LUMIÈRE /lit shadows definitive installation in the park

In year 2008, I was invited and supported by the association Art dans la Cité  to do a 3 months art residency in order to set up an installation in the kiosk of the park of Margency’s hospital (north of Paris). This children hospital welcomed and actively supported the project. Ombres de lumière has been a strong experience in a human and artistic ways.

1. Art residency in an hospital

I “lived” in this children hospital for 3 months. My atelier (a room in the hospital) offered to 12 children to draw and create in metal their own shadows.
It was a strong experience where I mostly learnt about life…. the first thing I understood was that a child, even if he’s ill, should be first considered as a child and never as an ill person.
As time was passing by, educators, teachers, nurses, doctors, technicians got involved in the project. The atelier became a place to share a moment, to listen to one another, to exchange, to talk, sing and even…dance !
The project developped into 2 strong moments or 2 installations:

1. A theater of lights and shadows where children where invited to play with their own silhouettes. There was something quite moving about watching them going behind the veil and playing, touching, meeting their own shadows.

2. A definitive installation in the kiosk of the park with vertical and horizontal mirrors creating new perspectives and reflecting the landscape. In the middle of the kiosk, was set up  a column of sky lit from inside and giving a rather different atmosphere at night: as if the light was coming from the silhouettes themselves. 

2. More about the project 

– Realisation of the shadows  (power point)
– Témoignage de l’artiste à mi-parcours
(french version only)

3. Press, media, video

– Video:: dessins des Ombres
enfants du CTP de Margency,  from Art dans la Cité 
– interview in may 2009 for Radio-Canada by Eugénie Francoeur
– Article de Sabrina Belaiba
– Article d’ “Art dans la Cité”
(the motivation of this association is to bring visual art into hospitals)