Dominique Ghesquière
20 Jan - 31 Mar 2013
DOMINIQUE GHESQUIÈRE
Terre de profondeur
20 January - 31 March 2013
As a tie-in with the artificial character of Vassivière Island, the Centre international d’art et du paysage, has invited Dominique Ghesquière to create for this unique site a group of works whose fragility contrasts with the sheer force of its architecture.
Focusing in particular on the history of the creation of Vassivière Island and the Electricité de France dam, the artist shaped her exhibition project during her residency at the Château de Vassivière; she appropriated the site via a discovery of the area and its history that included consultation of local archives about the draining of the lake in 1995, a meeting with Jean Pechalat, last of the old-time residents of the island and a tour of the hydroelectric facility.
This is a landscape – an island with its lake and its conifer forests – that only came into being in the 1950s, as a result of human planning and design, and the inherent tension between nature and artifice fuels this body of work by Dominique Ghesquière. Taking her inspiration from the elements – earth, water, fire, air – she has reconstructed landscapes and natural phenomena, with an emphasis on the fleeting, ephemeral moments nature reveals to us.
The artist:
Born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1953, Dominique Ghesquière graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in 2001. She now lives and works in Paris.
Since her first residency, at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 2002-2003, she has had several solo exhibitions in France – FRAC Burgundy, Dijon, 2006; La BF15, Lyon, 2009 and 2011; La Station, Nice, 2010; 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, 2012 – and at the Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth, UK (2011) and in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany (2012).
She has also taken part in many group exhibitions in France – at venues including Les Subsistances, Lyon, 2005; FRAC Burgundy, Musée des Beaux-arts de Dijon, 2005; Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire, 2008; Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours, 2012 – and abroad: Mudam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg, 2012; Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany, 2010; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, 2010; Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, 2010.
Her work has been acquired by major public and private collections in France and elsewhere, notably including FRAC Bourgogne and Mudam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg. In 2012 FRAC Limousin acquired her ombres électriques. She recently received a grant from France’s National Foundation for Graphics and the Visual Arts.
In 2011 her first monograph, edited by Eva González-Sancho, was published by FRAC Burgundy.
Dominique Ghesquière is represented by the Paris gallery Chez Valentin: www.galeriechezvalentin.com
Her work can also be seen on her website: www.dominique-ghesquiere.com
Terre de profondeur
20 January - 31 March 2013
As a tie-in with the artificial character of Vassivière Island, the Centre international d’art et du paysage, has invited Dominique Ghesquière to create for this unique site a group of works whose fragility contrasts with the sheer force of its architecture.
Focusing in particular on the history of the creation of Vassivière Island and the Electricité de France dam, the artist shaped her exhibition project during her residency at the Château de Vassivière; she appropriated the site via a discovery of the area and its history that included consultation of local archives about the draining of the lake in 1995, a meeting with Jean Pechalat, last of the old-time residents of the island and a tour of the hydroelectric facility.
This is a landscape – an island with its lake and its conifer forests – that only came into being in the 1950s, as a result of human planning and design, and the inherent tension between nature and artifice fuels this body of work by Dominique Ghesquière. Taking her inspiration from the elements – earth, water, fire, air – she has reconstructed landscapes and natural phenomena, with an emphasis on the fleeting, ephemeral moments nature reveals to us.
The artist:
Born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1953, Dominique Ghesquière graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon in 2001. She now lives and works in Paris.
Since her first residency, at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 2002-2003, she has had several solo exhibitions in France – FRAC Burgundy, Dijon, 2006; La BF15, Lyon, 2009 and 2011; La Station, Nice, 2010; 3bisf, Aix-en-Provence, 2012 – and at the Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth, UK (2011) and in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany (2012).
She has also taken part in many group exhibitions in France – at venues including Les Subsistances, Lyon, 2005; FRAC Burgundy, Musée des Beaux-arts de Dijon, 2005; Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire, 2008; Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours, 2012 – and abroad: Mudam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg, 2012; Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany, 2010; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, 2010; Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, 2010.
Her work has been acquired by major public and private collections in France and elsewhere, notably including FRAC Bourgogne and Mudam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Luxembourg. In 2012 FRAC Limousin acquired her ombres électriques. She recently received a grant from France’s National Foundation for Graphics and the Visual Arts.
In 2011 her first monograph, edited by Eva González-Sancho, was published by FRAC Burgundy.
Dominique Ghesquière is represented by the Paris gallery Chez Valentin: www.galeriechezvalentin.com
Her work can also be seen on her website: www.dominique-ghesquiere.com