PRIX IREST 2023
L'ENVERS DU DÉCOR
Du 22 janvier au 26 janvier 2023
Commissariat d'exposition : Francesca Cominelli
Remise de prix le 26 janvier 2024
L’Institut de Recherche et d'Études Supérieures du Tourisme et Sorbonne Artgallery / Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ont lancé la quatrième édition du concours photo international sur le thème : L'Envers du décor.
For Sorbonne Artgallery, as part of Photo Days 2023, Véronique Ellena offers a never-before-seen vision of Strasbourg Cathedral's Millennium Stained Glass Window, which she created in 2015, following a commission from the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Grand-Est. This work was created in close collaboration with master glassmaker Pierre-Alain Parot, who passed away this year.
In this exhibition, the artist presents a series of colorful, mysterious images never before seen. The photographs presented at Galerie Soufflot are the result of a patient process of image creation, collection and composition.
The nature photographs have been the subject of numerous shooting campaigns: in Strasbourg, in the Drome or in the Ain, and even in Rome at the Villa Medici, they are the result of research and observation.
As for the portraits, they are the faces of the Cathedral's faithful, inhabitants and lovers, photographed in St. Catherine's chapel. All these portraits were then included in Memling's Christ face, revealing Christ's humanity through light.
Véronique Ellena's team included Boris Tissot for artistic supervision and Zabou Carrière for graphic design.
Working with the master glassmaker and his workshop, the images were printed on glass, then reworked using an innovative enamel and lead process. Restored to near life-size, and visible up close for the first time, the photographs of the panels reveal the details that make up the stained glass, allowing us to better appreciate its extreme refinement and richness. The images as a whole are in close dialogue with the venue that houses them, Sorbonne Artgallery. As in the Cathedral, the slightly darkened space is conducive to contemplation and meditation. The colors burst forth, beckoning visitors to discover the subtlety of the compositions and details.
This exhibition also takes the form of a thank-you: it was conceived as a tribute to master glassmaker Pierre-Alain Parot, who passed away recently. It celebrates the prowess of his skills, as well as Véronique Ellena's long friendship and collaboration with him.
Véronique Ellena, visual artist and photographer, is attentive to everything that makes everyday life poetic and profound. The simple beauty of the world around us is at the heart of her preoccupations. Her work addresses a number of issues: man's place in society, the environment and its symbolism, and the relationship between art and spirituality. In her series, for example, she has taken as much interest in the small pleasures of everyday life as in still lifes and the homeless.
Trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre in Brussels, in the photography studio of Gilbert Fastenaekens, she has received several public commissions (Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Musée André Malraux in Le Havre) and exhibited in France and abroad.
Winner of the Prix de Rome and resident at the Villa Médicis in 2007, she lived between Paris and Rome for several years.
In 2015, she created the Millennium stained glass window for Strasbourg Cathedral and won the Intelligence of the Hand Prize (Dialogue Category) from the Bettencourt Schuller Foundation with master glassmaker Pierre-Alain Parot.
In 2018 her work is the subject of a retrospective at the Musée Réattu, Arles.
In 2020, she exhibits her images in situ at the prestigious Parc Floral in Paris, and in 2021 Le Hangar in Brussels devotes a major exhibition to her, "Vivre sa vie".
In 2022, she was invited to take part in the event Campagne première, then returned to the Villa Medicis for the Florence and Damien Bachelot collection exhibition.
Her work can be found in numerous museum collections - Centre Georges Pompidou, Fonds national d'Art contemporain, Frac Île-de-France - and private collections - Florence & Damien Bachelot collection, Christian Lacroix collection.
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