A. Karine Bonneval

“For the last few years, Karine Bonneval has focused her research on the paradoxical relations we maintain with the living. Through notions of territory, exoticism, exploration, hybridisation and raw materials, she examines our relationship with nature, which human beings have domesticated without always realising that they are an integral part of everything they hold sway over. Her sculptures, videos and installations attempt to highlight this necessary alterity between humans and other living beings, plants in particular. With poetry and more than a touch of mischief, combining the natural with the artificial and the artisanal with the industrial, she poses the question of adaptation, of dialogue with an environment made up of our preferred interlocutors”. Gunther Ludwig, 2015.

Sugarcane is the world’s most widely grown plant.

“Where does what we eat come from? Humankind regards nature as a curiosity. It hunts it, plays with it, and uses it as a larder. For millions of years, human beings have been deciphering their environment and what it can bring them. They are often afraid and want to master it. Backlash guaranteed!

Sugar is one of our greatest pleasures and one of our worst scourges. People love sugar. They have been seeking it out frenetically since prehistory. Alexander the Great brought back sugarcane from India, and acclimatised it in the Mediterranean long before colonists cultivated it in the Antilles and initiated the worst form of slavery with the complicity of African tribal chiefs. Napoleon ruined the trade triangle that had brought so much wealth to Nantes and Bordeaux by forcing Delessert to develop the cultivation of sugar beet, although it was another half-century before the scourge of slavery was done away with. These days, we eat too much sugar and diabetes is one of humankind’s most widespread illnesses. We must beware of sugar”. Gilles Fumey, food geographer, 2013, on the subject of Makarka and explorers’ outfits.

Sugarcane is a perfect illustration of the complex relationship we have with the vegetable world.

The geographical origin of Saccharum officinarum is a matter of debate. Spread across the world by the hand of man and crossed with other sugarcane species, it no longer exists in the wild. It is the most cultivated plant worldwide.

The “white gold” once produced thanks to slavery and the cause of wars has now become an inexpensive commodity obtainable wherever you are in the world. But its whiteness and glittering crystallisation preserve all the ambiguity of our common history.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Karine BONNEVAL
FRANCE

Born in La Rochelle in 1970; lives in the Centre-Loire Valley Region.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015
Dendromité, École supérieure d'art et de design / ESAD, Orléans, France

2012
Bonpland et Acclimatation, projection et rencontre à l’Alliance française en association avec le MAMBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Moteurs !, exposition à la borne du pays où le ciel est toujours bleu, La Châtre, France
Je cherche des parfums nouveaux, des fleurs plus larges, des plaisirs inéprouvés, la Maréchalerie énsa-v / École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles, France
Hybrides véhicules, Galerie MET de la Châtre, Paris, France

2010
Dans un jardin (FRAC Haute-Normandie), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France
Projection d’Acclimatation, semaine transversale, Faculté d’arts plastiques, Lille, France

2009
Macadam cow-girl, Galerie ENSA, Limoges, France
Moteur !, Centre d’art contemporain – Passages / Ginkgo, Troyes, France

2007
Cabaret automobile, les dessous du patrimoine, Petite Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016
La force de l’empathie, Watou kunstenfestival, Belgium
Back to the trees, forêt de Chaux, France
Fantômes et apparitions, Château du Rivau, Lémeré, France
Microscopie du Banc, Micro Onde, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France

2015
Jardins d’hiver, La Graineterie centre d’art, Houilles, France
Chimères, Château du Rivau, Léméré, FranceTriennale de Vendôme, France
Jardiniers terrestres, jardinier céleste, biennale d’art contemporain de Melle, France
GlocauAir, open studios, Berlin, Germany

2014
Les habits de château, Château de Maisons-Laffitte, France
Marc Plas invite, Galerie The Window, Paris, France
A posteriori, énsa-v / École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Versailles, France
Le secret, Château du Rivau, Léméré, France

2013
Design culinaire à 4 mains, avec Carole Belenus, MAC/VAL, Vitry sur Seine, France
Passe-moi le sel ! , 15ème Parcours contemporain, Fontenay-le-Comte, France
Dés-tresse et délacé treize, Maison des Tresses et Lacets, Parc naturel régional du Pilat, France
Je sème à tout vent, Galerie Martine et Thibault de la Châtre, Paris, France
Les livres de l’or pauvres, Château de Lucinges, France
Des Fleurs Sinon Rien !, Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, France
Si l’art de la parure m’était conté, Château du Rivau, Léméré, France

2012
Phylloplastie, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Centre d'Arts et de Nature, Chaumont-sur-Loire, France
Post ecologia, FASE, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
La maladie de Flaubert, musée Flaubert et d’histoire de la médecine, Rouen, France

2011
16ème Biennale internationale de céramique contemporaine, couvent des cordeliers, Châteauroux, France

2010
Portraits de chaussures. Histoires de pieds, Musée international de la Chaussure, Romans, France
Et si la guirlande de Julie était en laine ?, Domaine de Rambouillet, Rambouillet, France
Accrochage d’été, Galerie Martine et Thibault de la Châtre, Paris, France
Doublures, maison des arts d’Évreux, Évreux, France
Appel de ph’art, Musée de l’Auto et du Vélo, Châtellerault, France

2008
Composites, CAUE 92, Galerie du Petit Château, Sceaux, France
777, une journée vidéo d’artistes plasticiens, Château de Kerpaul, Loctudy, France
Histoires de chaussure, Musée international de la Chaussure, Romans, France

2007
Montre-moi l’œuvre autrement, FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen, France
Pleins phares, Musée national de l’Automobile, Mulhouse, France
Brigade des images, Glaz’art, Paris, France
Fragile, la Générale, Paris, France
A Song of Love, Candid arts trust Gallery, London, United-Kingdom