On location in Digne-les-bains since 11 October 2021
Artist, lithophile and amateur vulcanologist, Ilana Halperin reminds us that mineral matter is not condemned to leave us unmoved. Porous, intimately linked to our physical and temporal scale, it runs through our culture and our human, if not “earthly”, representations, as an inescapable marker of our identity: who are we? where are we from? how do we show it?
By combining personal accounts and scientific discourse, the artist reveals numerous cognitive, affective and plastic intersectionalities that make the “inert” an outdated concept. Architecture, archaeology, crafts, images or certain forms of rituals from everyday life testify, thanks to a polyphony subtly staged by the artist, to the co-construction between man and his environment.
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Ilana Halperin’s work has been exhibited in more than 15 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Iceland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, China and more recently Turkey.
Several articles have been published recently, notably in the online magazines Frieze Magasine and Artsy.net.
During her first residency, Ilana Halperin studies the unique geological formations of the UNESCO Geopark of Haute Provence and meets the women and men who still practice and transmit the traditional skills and crafts of the region.
With the expertise of scientists and inhabitants, the artist created a series of works “crystallising” this relationship between nature, landscape and humans, through sculptures and stories.
Elle s’appuie notamment She relies in particular on the singularity of remarkable sites, such as the petrifying aquifer spring of the Parc Saint-Benoît, so dear to the people of Dignan, as a potential focus for new fictions.
