French artists arrive to take up residency

French artists arrive to take up residency

French artistic duo Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet have arrived in Wellington to take up their share of an inaugural French artist-in-residence programme run by Massey University’s Te Whiti o Rehua School of Art and the Wellington City Council.

Since 2001 the pair have worked together on films, art exhibitions and performances and are inspired by history, popular fiction, B-grade movies and museum dioramas. Their stories bring together historical facts, fiction or new realities and take the form of films, installations and performative conferences – a mixture of lecture, performance and conference.

Ms Hervé will give an introductory lecture on their work on Thursday May 19 at Massey’s Wellington campus.

In partnership with Te Whare Hēra International Artist residency, the Cultural Office of the French Embassy in New Zealand developed a special initiative enabling the participation of French contemporary artists in the residency programme over the next three years.

Like the inaugural recipient of the programe, Etienne de France, whose term ended in April, Ms Hervé and Ms Maillet will spend the next three months living and working in Te Whare Hēra’s studio, gallery and apartment located at the prow end of Clyde Quay Wharf.

Previous projects by the two artists have focused on such idiosyncratic material as sea monsters and Jane Austen, the possibility of underwater civilizations, and the life of mathematician Pythagoras filmed as a swords-and-sandals epic.

In Wellington the artists will seek out locations and histories that chime with their interests. Their residency will culminate in a public performance at the Te Whare Hēra Gallery presenting and guiding the audience through the material they have collected.

Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, both born in 1981, have been working as a duo for more than ten years. They have different backgrounds: Ms Hervé studied Art and Art History and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 2003 and a Master of Arts. In 2005, while Ms Maillet went on to achieve a PhD in Anthropological History in 2010. They started working together in Paris in 2000. Since then, they have been pursuing research-based projects for two or three years at a time, each chapter of research taking the form of a film or a series of films, an exhibition or a publication.

Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet are represented by Marcelle Alix gallery, Paris - http://www.marcellealix.com/

ENDS

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