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Office, Château

A. Isa Barbier

“Faisceau”

published at 27/01/2020
Faisceau, installation d'Isa Barbier au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2020 - © Éric Sander
Isa Barbier's work primarily derives from encountering, comprehending and interpreting a place. It is often site-specific to somewhere such as a chapel, castle, convent or seafront, but it could also be a more traditional museum or art gallery. The uniqueness of the location determines the appearance of the artwork.
Isa Barbier therefore mostly works in situ, displaying installations made of light, airy materials such as feathers, petals or mirrors arranged in geometric, architectural or dynamic forms. Her works appear to float in thin air.
As well as the suspended objects themselves, light, breath and air must be considered as fluctuating elements that contribute to the perception of the work and the way it floats.
The effect of these external elements is not incidental, it enhances the artistic endeavour just as much as the work itself. Thus Isa Barbier’s lively aerial installations never cease to reinvent themselves.
 
A different relationship with the work
“An installation of feathers is a nebulous object that can’t even be captured by photography. Its memory is always failing, sketchy and one-sided. These airy sculptures only appear to be fragile. An appropriate place away from disturbances, and simple and patient care and attention can make them last a lot longer than you would expect.
The threads can be untangled, the wax can be checked between two fingers, and the feathers can be replaced or washed. This maintenance is a pleasure, but also a constraint. To end it, you can dismantle the work. In which case this large volume is reduced to a handful of feathers that can be placed in a “box or urn”. Later, the work can be reinterpreted in the same place using the 'score' and the feathers just waiting to be reused. The work floats between disappearance and continuity. Its life depends on our actions. You must dare to touch it, delicately, patiently, gently in order to keep it alive, but also accept that the work will end, either on a day of choice or one which arrives by accident. And you must find in this ending beauty and freedom. A new space. To be in front of this suspended life, so vulnerable and therefore so precious, is like being in front of our life.” Isa Barbier
 
“Her feathers are all alike yet so different. False fractals. Like a number of similar elements, none of which are identical and all of which can be infinitely reconstructed. You can believe that she sees the particles dancing in rays of sunlight, and that, having an eye for it, she makes herself the messenger of the natural order, born by chance and of necessity.
Isa Barbier offers a world with the potential both for extension and obliteration. This movement is so volatile, this wave that disturbs the lines, this wind that deforms or breaks the body of her works, this sculpture of emptiness that does not fear nothingness brings us back to the space found between things, rather than the things themselves. Through her work she describes the idea of a shifting shape, as tenuous as it may be; which by moving, dispels the mirage of an eternal state, indissoluble, suspended in the world of ideas.
Like a footprint in the sand, this work effortlessly abandons the concept of death. And its weightlessness is caused not only by feathers, leaves or threads themselves, but also due to her method, which uses nothing that is not already there: remains fallen from the sky, reunited and linked to a place with a long history, perhaps a castle or a chapel. Nothing is removed from the world, nothing – or very little – is added, but the whole body is arranged differently. Isa Barbier appears to glide into the spaces that she works in, without damaging them.” Christine Rodès, June 2012

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Isa BARBIER
FRANCE
 
 
Born in 1945 in Cannes, Isa Barbier is a French artist who lives and works in between Marseille and Italy. She enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Nice in 1966 and later gained a joint honours degree in history and the history of art and archaeology from the Université d’Aix-en-Provence in 1971. This enabled her to spend ten years of her life, between 1970 and 1980 working on archaeological digs, however, this did not prevent her from also gaining a diploma in psychology in 1973. From 1980 onwards she devoted herself to sculpture and drawing. She belatedly gained a masters in visual arts in 1993.
In collecting the material for her works – natural objects found on the ground, she steps back into her childhood days when she would accompany her botanist father in his hunt for plants and insects, both of them passionate about natural sciences.
In the first monograph dedicated to her work, published by Éditions Lienart in 2017, Nathalie Ergino identified four types of work in the artist's creations: drawings on paper, wall reliefs, site-specific installations and microstructures.

ISA BARBIER

Complete Biography

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019
Zellweger arte contemporanea, Lugano, Switzerland
Galerie Helenbeck, Nice, France
 
2018
Art en dialogue: Isa Barbier et Richard Long, Institut d’Art Contemporain (IAC) Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, France
Cryptes de Saint-Victor de Marseille, France
Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
 
2017
Espace Rosa Turetsky, Présentation monographie à la Sip, Geneva, Switzerland
Chapelle de la Miséricorde, Montpellier, France (Galerie ALMA hors les murs)
 
2016
Lycée L. Massignon, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Chapelle du château, Les 3 CHA centre d’art, Châteaugiron, France
 
2015
Autour de la lumière, Abbaye de Silvacane, La Roque d’Anthéron, France
 
2014
De lieu en lieu, broder le temps, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
Rencontres Contemporaines, Chapelle de l’Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, Lyon, France
Église anglaise de Finhaut/Switzerland dans le cadre du Festival "Infinitudes"
In situ 2014, Patrimoine et art contemporain, Eglise Saint-Martin, Saint-Martin-de-Londres, France
 
2013
Artgeneve, Foire internationale d’Art contemporain
Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
 
2012
Ferme-Asile, CAC, Sion-Valais, Switzerland
Château d’Hauteville, Saint-Légier-Vaud, Switzerland
Chapelle de la Miséricorde, Vallauris, France
Moulins de Mougins, Mougins, France
 
2011
Artbygeneve, Foire internationale d’Art contemporain, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence, France
 
2010
Couvent des Minimes, Pourrières, France – Résidence Voyons voir
Un lieu, une œuvre, Ménerbes, France
 
2009
Banque Arner, Lugano, Switzerland
Tour des Templiers, Hyères-les-Palmiers, France
 
2008
Chapelle St Jean-Baptiste, St Jean du Puy, Trets, France - Résidence Voyons voir
Carte blanche, Hermès, Lausanne, Switzerland
Musée Ziem, Martigues, France
Chapelle St Jean, Monastier sur Gazeille, France - Rencontres contemporaines, avec les musiques de B. Pesson et C. Roche

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019
Créatrices: l’émancipation par l’art, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Un territoire en 3 temps/ Du soleil à la source, Ferme de Bourlatier, Ardèche, France
Un lieu, une œuvre, Maison Dora Maar, Ménerbes, France
 
2018
Chaosmose, Collection à l’étude, Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, France
ArtParis stand Rosa Turetsky, France
50 ans Perspectives, Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, France
ArtGeneva, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva
 
2017
Perspectives, 50 ans, Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, France
100 nuages, En résonance avec la Biennale de Lyon, une proposition de l’artothèque Le Lac, Saint-Étienne, France
Voyage immobile, Espace Masséna, Caisse d’Épargne Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
Galerie Rosa Turetsky hors les murs & Galerie Deleuze-Rochetin, Arpaillargues, France
Mirabilia, Maison des Consuls, Musée d’arts et archéologie, Les Matelles, France
ArtGeneva, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva
 
2016  
IAC Institut d’art contemporain de Villeurbanne, France
Musée de l’Olivier Volx, France
Leurs nouveaux dessins, Artothèque Antonin Artaud, Marseille, France
Autour du dessin, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
 
2015
8ème ciel, installation in situ, Galerie Kamila Régent, Saignon en Luberon, France
Anima, animal, Abbaye royale de Saint-Riquier, France
Vies volées, Artothèque Antonin Artaud, Marseille, France
Dix années de donations et acquisitions au Musée Ziem, Martigues, France
ArtGeneva, Foire internationale dʼArt contemporain, Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, Switzerland
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Isa Barbier
Faisceau, installation d'Isa Barbier au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2020 - © Éric Sander
Faisceau, installation d'Isa Barbier au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2020 - © Éric Sander
Faisceau, installation d'Isa Barbier au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2020 - © Éric Sander
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