Marguerite Pilven

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  © l'artiste et la galerie Leonardo Agosti

In his treatise called "Traité de l’efficacité", François Jullien describes processes of creation for which « it is essential that the effect is not subjected to any overload from whoever produces it, and that they should be careful not to add anything personal and emotional to its pure effectiveness. » This form of efficiency at the polar opposite of the flamboyant effect is also the one that Estèla Alliaud is seeking. In deliberately neutral interiors, she engages simple phenomena with materials that she stages : a floor covered in milk, and empty room swamped with an ash cloud, a patch of clay slowly flowing on plywood…These set spaces both thought-out and intuitive are photographed in real time.

If the camera is used for its descriptive qualities, for Estèla Alliaud it is also a speculation tool. The fragmented visions that she samples from these experiences enhance fine phenomena : fragile equilibriums of a mass layout, discreet appearances of phenomena triggered by contacts, transitions from one state to another. Sometimes, the artist chooses to re-establish them with several shots so that it is possible to follow the evolution of the substance and the way the movement inscribes or fixes itself in it.

This substance thus becomes a memory, a sensitive testimony of an advent or a disappearance. Each and every one should estimate where they stand on this evolution. The eye brushes the materials and eyesight gets more refined through contact with miniscule details. Estèla Alliaud thus awakens the viewer’s sensitivity in substance, without directing it towards a definite thematic.

For the Solo project's catalogue, Basel 2013