Joëlle Flumet

Les Habits neufs

Animation, ultra HD, 2'15'', loop, 2019

IN ORDER TO COMMIT TO REDUCING OUR ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION TOGETHER, THE VIDEO WORKS OF THE MIRE PROGRAMME ARE BROADCAST ONLY DURING PEAK HOURS, FROM 7AM TO 9.30AM, FROM 12PM TO 2.30PM AND FROM 5.30PM TO 8PM. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND HAVE A NICE TRIP.

Les Habits neufs (The New Clothes) features six sequences, all of which show a small open construction. These stands, which look alike but are never quite the same, echo the stations of the Léman Express. Time goes by, atmospheres and seasons change, in very simple and readily understandable colour codes. The more or less absurd actions that unfold in the surrounding area reflect the discrepancy between the usual environment within railway stations and peculiar, unforeseen and at times strange events that may occur there. Joëlle Flumet’s work builds on the concept of non-place, as defined by the anthropologist Marc Augé, relating to transition areas, interchangeable spaces, in which humans do not reside and remain anonymous. In the video, only sets and objects come to life, while the only human figures featured are blurred, static but unstable, looking like ghosts rather than living beings.

Produced by the Fonds cantonal d'art contemporain, Genève

Autres artistes à Genève — Eaux-Vives

PROJECTORS IN MAINTENANCE!

Joëlle Flumet was born in Geneva in 1971. She has been living and working in Zurich since 2012. She attended Ecole supérieure d’art visuel (ESAV, now the Haute Ecole d’art et de design, HEAD) and was taught by Silvie Defraoui, as part of the module Mixed Media, and obtained her diploma in 1996. She was granted several scholarships by the City and the Canton of Geneva. She was also an artist-in-residence at Pro Helvetia in Cairo and Cape Town in 2011, in Zug thanks to a Landis & Gyr scholarship in 2010, and at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, thanks to a subsidy from Simon I. Patiño Foundation and the City of Geneva. Her work has received numerous awards, including the KWS Art Prize and the Prix de la Fondation Irène Reymond. She has also won several Swiss Art Awards.

Joëlle Flumet works on various media – drawings, sculptures and installations in public spaces. In her works, the artist examines our consumer society, with a focus on objects that are often diverted from their original purpose, to hint at behaviours induced by the desire to consume. Her drawings are similarly nonsensical and offbeat, as she uses vector graphics, taking inspiration from pictures in magazines or instructions for use, to create unsettling works that feature characters in interiors where they seem unable to fit in.