La Patinoire Royale / Galerie Valérie Bachinfo@galerievaleriebach.com / Tel: +32 (0)2 533 03 90

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ALICE ANDERSON‘Itinéraires d’un corps’, 2017

Performative sculptures series following Anderson’s research on repetitive movement and the spiritual act of weaving in the Sierra Nevada, Colombia

150 x 150 cm, metallic thread

Press-releaseALICE ANDERSON

‘Itinéraires d’un corps’ | Spiritual Machines12.01.18 > 17.03.18

Opening Thursday 11 January5 pm - 8 pm

The great questions that the digitalisation of man’s relationship with the world and parallel advances in artificial

intelligence bring about, lead us to consider essential questions about our primitive interactions within the

physical world.

Anderson’s research has directed her to certain ancestral cultures where primal senses are clearly evoked and

celebrated. Such is the case amongst the Arhuacos tribe and its relationship to nature and the universe around

us. Alice Anderson has the privilege of having established a relationship of reflection and exchange with natives

of the Arhuacos community on their ancestral rites, in particular, on the spiritual act of weaving.

It is during rites and dances in the heart of nature in the Sierra Nevada, the sacred mountain of Colombia, that

one is able to assess and evaluate all dimensions of the great upheavals of our civilisation.

Alice Anderson’s ritual performances generate pastel and thread drawings, corten steel sculptures and wire

sculptures. Several of these bodies of work will be presented in the various spaces of the exhibition.

‘Spiritual Machines’, 2017Totems and statuettes series made out of different type of machines and objects. Wall programmer, multi USB plugs, Blackberry. 20 x 10 cm metallic thread

Anglo-French sculptor and performer Alice

Anderson lives and works in London. Born in

1972, she studied at Goldsmiths College of Art in

London and at Beaux-Arts Paris.

Her practice is above all performative. Her

performances and sculptures have been

presented at Whitechapel Gallery in 2012, at the

55th Venice Biennial in 2013, at the Wellcome

Collection in London in 2014, at Espace Culturel

Louis Vuitton Paris in 2015, at the Saatchi Gallery

in 2016 and Centre Pompidou in 2017.

Since childhood, Alice has had an extreme

sensitivity to her environment: to light,

certain colours, sound, vibratory movement

and waves transmitted by different materials.

She relates to the other through objects and

exists in total visual, auditory, olfactory and

corporeal relation to objects that surround

her. In her experience, objects not only have

practical uses, but intervene in Anderson’s

learning processes and relationship to the world.

ITINERAIRES D’UN CORPS

Presented in the great nave of the Patinoire, the sculptural installation

‘Bodily Itineraries’ proposes an ‘abstraction in space’: a temple

composed of square elements of variable dimensions formed

through performance using different speeds, movements and

postures of the body.

These performative sculptures were commissioned for the venue

and will be presented for the first time, in line with site specific inter-

ventions that Anderson performed at the Freud Museum in London,

in the Eiffel Historic building or at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in

Paris.

It is around neutral shapes, here the square, and through perfor-

mances in the spaces of La Patinoire Royale / Galerie Valérie Bach,

that Anderson’s repetitive actions generate a science of space and

the body. These geometric forms create an « alphabet of move-

ment » which relates to the body, the world and weaving, a funda-

mental spiritual act for the Arhuacos and Kogi communities who

philosophise that to live is to « weave one’s life ».

SPIRITUAL MACHINES‘Spiritual Machines’ is the title that brings together Alice Anderson’s object-sculptures (totems, masks and

statuettes) to be exhibited in the glass-roofed space of Galerie Valerie Bach.

‘SPIRITUAL MACHINES’ refers to the work of scientist Ray Kurzweil’s text, ‘The Age of Spiritual Machines’, (2005)

in which the author announced the future of artificial intelligence and of advanced technologies which are

enabling humanity to transcend its biological limits. Through her practice, Anderson proposes to go back to

primal and ritualistic gestures that, in a different way, give the power of life and spirituality to objects.

Without nostalgia, Alice Anderson questions a time in which the very nature of what it is to be human is simul-

taneously enriched and challenged. Through her practice, the artist creates new physical relationships to objects

and spaces, using a weaving technique that she has developed over many years with copper coloured wire.

Copper here symbolises the connectivity of the digital world and becomes the medium that allows Anderson to

‘memorise’ objects and architecture. The artist speaks of ‘memorisation’ because the process is a way of drawing

memory circuits in a physical way around objects. This dance around objects transports her to a meditative state

(which is generated by rhythm and repetition of movement) identical to true trance states.

Anderson’s practice is a search for alternatives processes that contrast with the externalisation of memory

induced by digital processes. Amongst other examples, one may think of the systematic act of photographing

with a mobile phone, an act that often replaces an attempt to remember or to simply to live the experience or

the event for oneself. When Anderson feels that an object is becoming obsolete or may disappear in the course

of life, she memorises this with thread before it happens.

Presentation of the exhibition

‘Itinéraires d’un corps’, 2017Performative sculptures series following Ander-son’s research on repetitive movement and the spiritual act of weaving in the Sierra Nevada, Colombia. 50 x 50 cm, wire.

Anderson’s squares are like sacred surfaces in which time and space are inscribed through the meditative

movements of her performances. They are a representation of a world whose perimeters correspond to cardinal

points and the sculptures’ two faces refer to the opposing forces of the universe: light and shadow, feminine and

masculine, high and low, positive and negative.

Being at the same time maps but also calendars and mnemonic or analogic supports, these abstract forms

confront us with a mental, spiritual and material reading, leading us to connect many levels: physical, symbolic,

visible, invisible, enigmatic and infinitely big or infinitely small.

PULSE DRAWINGS / PULSE PAINTINGS

In addition to sculptures, Alice Anderson’s performances also give rise to a series of drawings resulting

from a repetitive action that the artist performs simultaneously on two horizontal surfaces by swinging her

body from one surface to the other. Using pastel in a way that breaks with tradition, Anderson begins by

dematerialising red pastel onto a wooden panel. She then transfers pastel from board to cloth using a fine

tool to scrape pastel from panel onto fabric (bed-sheets, tea towels, tablecloths) according to repetitive

binary rhythms. Two series result from this movement:

‘Pulse Drawings’ correspond to the panels from which material has been removed.

‘Pulse Paintings’ creates a visual representation of the energy generated by the sway of the body.

This movement of instinctive balance between two surfaces plays on the vibratory properties of red

pastel to which Anderson is particularly sensitive. Through the process, Anderson transcribes her internal

rhythm, thus experiencing a sense of immediacy and transcendence.

Alice Anderson - Pulse Drawing, 2017 Alice Anderson - Pulse Painting, 2017

Performative drawings - Alice Anderson : ‘Pulse Drawings - ‘Pulse Paintings’, 2017

Performances views

‘Spiritual Machines’, 2017Alice Anderson performing ‘Cable Tray Totem’ in her studio in London.222 x 116 cm, wire

Performance ‘Wire’, Bâtiment Historique Eiffel, 2016

‘181 Kilomètres’, 2016181 kilometers walk,Performance view during the weaving of a 2 meter sphere, Saatchi Gallery”

Born in 1972. Lives and works in London

EDUCATION

1998-2001 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris2002-2005 Goldsmiths College of Arts, London

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017 In Vivo, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Between Surfaces, UNIT9 Contemporary Art Centre, London, GB Everything is connected, public sculpture, Howick Place, London, GB

2016 Post digital, Union Projects, London, GB Time Capsules, Glass Tank, Oxford, GB Insouciance, public sculpture, Place Saint Germain des Prés, Paris, France Share & Wires, sculptures permanentes, Eiffel Historical Building, Paris, France

2015 Data Space, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France Memory Movement Memory Objects, Wellcome Collection, London, GB

2014 Cutting, Folding, Assembling, Coastal Currents Festival, Hastings, GB

2013 Performing Life, Villa Bernasconi Cultural Center, Lancy, Switzerland In Movement, Print Room, London, GB

2012 Travelling Studio, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, GB From Dance to Sculpture, Riflaker, London, GB Timescale, Artopia, Milan, Italie

2011 Childhood Rituals, Freud Museum, London, GB Years after Years, CoExist Centre, Southend on Sea, GB

2008 Soft Sculptures, National Museum, Nice, France Spectres, National Museum Pablo Picasso, Vallauris, France La Traversée des apparences, Frac Paca, Marseille, France

2007 D.Day, Espace Croisé, Roubaix, France

2005 Anderson’s Journal, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France Dr Edwards’ House, Marnay Art Center, France

2003 Vertical, Frac Paca, Marseille, France

Biography of the artist

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017 Summer Show, La Patinoire Royale, Brussels, Belgium Drawing Biennale, Drawing Room, London, GB Sculptures en plein Air, Triennale, Malbuisson, France Force of Nature, The Art Pavillion, London, GB

Beyond, Foundation One, London, GB The House of Penelope, Artspace 46, London, GB International Arts Festival, Maidstone Museum, Maidstone, GB

2016 Champagne Life, Saatchi Gallery, London, GB Traces, Minsheng Art Museum, Pékin, China Tabous, Namur Cultural Center, Namur, Belgium Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, GB

2015 Touch, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finlande Un regard sur la collection d’Agnès b, LAM museum, Lille, France

2014 British Contemporary Art, Rizzordi Art Foundation, St Petersburg, Russia Interchange Junctions- around Yinka Shonibare, Howick Place, London, GB Out of Our heads, Shoreditch Town Hall, London, GB Between Reality, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France Forward, The Drawing Gallery, Eton College, Windsor, GB Cords, Parcours St Germain, Paris, France Light Mood, Public Sculpture Parc, Leopardi Parc, Bergamo, Italy

2013 Personal Structures, Palazzo Bembo, 55ème Biennale de Venise, Venice, Italy White Light White Heat, Palazzo Franchetti, 55ème Biennale de Venise, Venise, Italy Art13 performances, London, UK Boat, Malbuisson Art triennal sculpture, Malbuisson, France Le Vert, Frac Haute Normandie, Normandie, France Myths, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Cajarc, France Mad, Bad and Sad, Freud Museum, London, GB

2012 Jeux d’Artistes, musée d’Annecy, Annecy, France Tainted Love, Transition, London, GB Sublimations, Meter Room, Coventry, GB Inner spaces, Brampton Museum, Herefordshire, GB New Masters, Cultural Center, Bologne, Italy

2011 The Return, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain d’Alger, Algeria Bound, All Visual Arts, London, GB Smoke On Water, Aubin Art Space, London, GB Human Frames, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany Nomadic Nights, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France Monolith, Latitude Contemporary Art, Suffolk, GB Uncanny, Birmingham Art Centre, Birmingham

2010 Elles at centre Pompidou, Pompidou Centre, Paris Living in Evolution, Busan Biennale, Busan Contemporary Art Museum, Korea Wonderland, Assab One, Milan, Italy Cher Monsieur Boltanski, Fondation Agnès b, Paris The Digital Hand, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taïwan Athenes - Marrakech - Palermo, Riso Contemporary Art Museum, Sicile Concrete and Glass, Hoxton Square, London, GB Identify: Body it, Nichido Contemporary Art museum, Japan

2009 From John to Sebastian, Tate Modern, London, GB Invisible Adversaries, Northern Gallery Contemporary Art, Sunderland, GB Anderson’s Journal, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Calais, Calais, France Mediterranean, Palazzo Rospiglosi, Rome, Italy Internationale Biennale of Marrakech, Marocco Ce qui demeure est le futur, Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Amiens, France The invention of a world, Institute Cultural Sao Paulo, Brazil

2008 Light after Dark, T Blouin Fondation, London, GB Hbox, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France Hbox, Tate Modern, London, GB Day, Le Fresnoy, Lille, France La Main Numérique, Centre d’Art Annecy, Annecy, France The Firious Gaze, Montehermoso Kulturunea, Vitoria, Spain Moving Stills, Musa Museum, Vienne, Austria Riddle Me, Danielle Arnaud, London, GB Chromophilia, Bear Space, London, GB Peur et Désir, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

2007 Hi Fi, Artprojx, Tate Britain, London, GB Surrealistxs, Centre Pasqu Art, Vienne, Austria From a believer, Ubu Art Foundation, Barcelone, Spain Dunkelheit, St Pancras Church, London, UK Contemporary Art Festival, Prague, Czech Republic AA’Journal, Greenland St Contemporary Art Centre, Artprojx, Liverpool, GB Artist’s Room, Locarno Film Festiva, Switzerland Peyolt, Centre d’art de Genevilliers, Paris, France

2006 La Force de l’Art, Grand Palais, Paris, France Kunstfilm Biennale, Cologne, Germany Body and Soul, FRAC PACA, Marseille, France Invisible Cities, Factory Berlin, Berlin, France Bienvenue, FRAC ALSACE, Alsace, France Partenaire Particulier, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France

2005 Modern Time, Man Museum, Italie Vertigo, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France News Revisited, Tabacalera Art Center, Spain New Spectrum of Art, EMAP Museum, Korea

2004 Artfog, Anna Norlander Museum, Suède

2003 Prospectif Cinema, Pompidou Center, Paris, France Jean Cocteau, sur le fil du siècle, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France David Bowie Art, Portobello Film Festival, London, GB Fables d’identités, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France

2002 Paysages d’entre-villes, Musée Zadkine, Paris, France Traversées, Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris Paris, France