Emilie Pitoiset

From A to B, from B to P, exhibition view, Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2010 - photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
From A to B, from B to P, exhibition view, Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2010 - photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Emilie Pitoiset’s (FR, 1980) body of work unfolds unambiguously and with great precision through a series of antitheses, which are the central themes in her work. Antitheses like adding up and subtracting, falling and balancing, documentaries and fiction, symmetry and repetition, magnetism and rejection converge. Each work is the result of a refined mix of contrastive elements which together generate an image with a specific tension.

Unlike some of her contemporaries, Emilie Pitoiset does not reproduce forms from the history of art. She processes fragments and removes them from their original context before placing them in a new context. She draws inspiration from a whole range of sources, from high culture to pop culture, such as Nouvelle Vague, cinema, literature and Nouveau Roman, but also from documentaries, history or everyday images and objects. Archives hold a particular interest for her. These she reinterprets and elevates to art, thereby reflecting on philosopher Jacques Rancière’s question: What is art?