Ça arrive loin de chez nous / It happens far away from us (installation, 2012) A hole in a wall, traces of violence in the past. Still, nothing is more intriguing than this hole — it is an exciting promise of something hidden, an intrusion into intimacy. The work refers to the aspects of a voyeurism that is nowadays often directed towards violence. The news and media show war and homicide on a regular basis. We nevertheless always maintain a certain degree of distance; almost as if we weren’t struck nor touched by what we see on the screens. It awakens the voyeur in us: to see without being seen, without risk, without responsibility. But in what ways does this reaction include an act of violence? This is where Aline Veillat’s piece intervenes. We, the voyeur, are caught in the act, our image is captured and made visible for all the world to see. Whether we like it or not, aren’t we all part of the film?
The work is shown within Media Intersections.
Media Intersections is a collaborative project between WRO Art Center, House of Electronic Arts (Basel), and RIXC Center (Riga) supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in the framework of the Cooperations 2012—2013 program.
Media Intersections project during WRO 2013 includes installations by Aline Veillat, Michel Winterberg, Denis Handschin, the RIXC group and a lecture by Doris Gassert.
Aline Veillat (b. 1967 in Réunion Island) — a French visual artist, media theoretician, author of interactive installations.
She grew up till her last teenage years in Morocco. Later she lived in Paris and Lausanne. She holds a PhD degree in Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of Arts from Paris 8 University and a MA degree in Digital Media from Lausanne Cantonal Art School. After a period of theoretical research mainly in art and phenomenology to question the spatial perception, she started to work as an artist.
Her works turn around two issues: our relationship to nature on one side, which goes from environmental questions to questions about notions of landscape, and, on the other side, how we interact with our today world in a more anthropological and social approach. She is particularly sensitive to cultural differences of perception of the world; so questions and feelings which follow are often driving forces which lead to an art project. Thus, with her work she is rather more interested to raise questions than to give any answers. Furthermore she can use plants, water—colors, photo, video, sound even though a lot of her works use new interactive media. In fact she tries to work with the medium which seems the most appropriate for the approached questions, and each object and medium are chosen for their metaphorical and symbolic power.
Her works were exhibited in various places in Switzerland as in Basel, Zürich, Bern, as well as internationally in Shanghai, Miami and recently in Gent with a work nominated for the New Technological Art Award 2012.
She lives and works in Basel.
