Elodie Silberstein is a French-Australian installation and performance artist who started her career in London 7 years ago. After four years in Sydney she is now moving to Barcelona where she will further develop her practise. She is currently undertaking a Masters Research in Fine Arts externally through the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III (France).
Elodie Silberstein © Kent Johnson
Your work tackles some very sensitive subjects such as abuse (emotional, sexual)and self-abuse (eating disorders). These subjects are not often treated in visual arts, has it been a challenge to present your work to the public and also galleries? You have lived in numerous countries; do you think your work has been received differently in those different locations?
My practice focuses on the trans-generational propagation of violence in the private sphere of post-modern society. I think you raised an important point by pointing the fact that these subjects are not often treated in visual arts. Eight times in ten, violence is perpetuated by people we know, sometimes in a covert way. This reality is far from the sensationalism and voyeurism image that Medias portrayed: a thief, rapist or paedophile as a monster coming from outside of the community. Part of the truth is that we are unable to cope with the idea that figures of horror come from our familiar landmark and look like us. As an artist, I am not interested in reinforcing the doxa but in presenting an alternative way to apprehend a kaleidoscopic reality.
You are right to suggest that this is challenging to present this reality, particularly the subject on which I am focusing today: incest. The Greek myth of Oedipus reminds us that incest had always been a deeply transgressive subject. Each country has a way to represent or I should say to not represent incest. In my personal experience, I find it more difficult to raise the subject in Australia than in France, especially after the Bill Henson controversy where galleries and public tended to be very tense about the subject of childhood. But this would be an oversimplified answer to consider that incest is a more taboo subject here. If in France, I could talk about this subject more easily, others subtle strategies of negation exist, like emphasizing errors by the judiciaries when these only account for 3% of the cases. In order to explore these different levels of reality, I am currently undertaking a Masters Research in Fine Arts externally through the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III
The aesthetic of your work is very strong, it has something beautiful and eery which, to my sense, reinforces the malaise, the sense of incertitude that lies within your work; and in your narrations you reference children literature, in particular tales (eg. Grimm Brothers, Alice in Wonderland by Carol Lewis) blurring the space between reality and fantasy. Where does this world come from and how did it come about?
This is exactly this ambivalent tension between repulsion and attraction that I look for, something haunting and enchanting because the complex reality of existence lies often in the middle. At first glance, my miniature worlds and tableaux vivants sound dreamlike and evocative, but the influence of dark romanticism, German expressionist cinema and childhood phantasmagoria give a more unsettling mood, an invitation to look behind the facilities of the appearance.
preparatory photograph, 2009 (photo Kent Johnson)© Kent Johnson
The dysfunctional behaviour recounted in my revisited fairy tales reminds us that folktales were primarily told for adults. Maria Tatar notes that in the eighteenth century French version of Little Red Riding Hood, “the heroine unwittingly eats the flesh and drinks the blood of her grandmother, is called a slut by her grandmother’s cat and performs a strip tease for the wolf” . But in the beginning of the nineteenth century, Grimm adjusted the tales to have them morally acceptable in the wake of the Puritanism of the Victorian time. In Snow White for example, they transformed the biological mother into a stepmother in order to minimise children’s anxieties. The happy ending in which the parents play a positive role in a fairy tale is part of a sanitising process that began with the brothers Grimm and continued with Walt Disney.
You still have a foot in the visual arts but the mise-en-scene of your installations and performances seems to be crossing over with live art. How did your practice start shifting to another discipline? Do you define yourself as a multi-disciplinary artist?
Yes, I guess I could define myself as a multi-disciplinary artist. I try to transcript my artistic world through different mediums. The project Alice will merge visual and live art and is aesthetically very influenced by the history of conventional theatre. Actors have been present in my tableaux vivants but for me, this will be a new step in their directing. Today, artists have a lot of freedom to experience new ways of interaction with the audience and open up new territories. There is a true syncretism between the different art forms. These opportunities are mind blowing but somehow we have to be careful to not get lost in the process, to not use new mediums for the sake of it but because aesthetically and / or ideologically, this is meaningful for the project.
You have just returned from a one-month residency at 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo. I think this was a dream both in terms of location as you have a fascination for the Japanese culture but also having the chance to focus on your work in Tokyo, for one solid month. Can you please tell us how you prepared for this residency?
There were two aspects to considered, a practical and emotional one. Being a mother, I had to organise my life in a concrete way. I had been helped a lot by my husband who supports my work but also by my young son who realises that this is normal that his mother could have the chance to be who she is. There is a lot of respect about each other in the family and this fact plays a big role. In parallel, I tried to be ready emotionally to be alone in a foreign environment. One month is a very short time for a residency. I attempted to anticipate my needs and built the foundation of the work knowing that my stay would amend it and bring me to the beauty of the unexpected. It is always destabilizing to face uncertainty but at the same time this is the all essence of a residency. Waiting in the airport, I remembered when I departed Cameroon for France at the age of 17. Our lives are a series of departures until the final one. This ultimate time, where we will go?
It must be both exciting and difficult to work from a place you don’t know, without your addresses for material, your close friends and family to support you. What were the challenges and also maybe good surprises you faced during your stay in Tokyo?
I have to say that I did this residency in the best condition I could dream. My living space had been conceived to allow me to be fully concentrated on my work and not be bothered by domestic aspects. I had access to a work studio and a gallery space. From helping me to find address, to introducing me to journalists, the multi-disciplinary team of 3331 Arts Chiyoda took care of all the practical aspects with a lot of attention. In a general way, I tried to be very discrete and to be more an observer than an actor in daily life. I felt instantly at the right place in Tokyo. Everything was foreign and at the same time, I had a sense of belonging. I will be based in Europe for the next few years but I have promised myself that I will go back. For me, this residency was just a beginning and not an end.
Renaissance, Photography from mood board, 2012 © Elodie Silberstein
At the end of your residency you had to present your work. You chose to present a performance, Renaissance, which drew on the Japanese spiritual approach of the nature and the search of beauty in the ephemeral. Can you tell us more about this work?
Renaissance was an extension of Memorium#2, a performance that investigated the mortality arising from domestic violence in the western world. After the project, I felt the need to explore the concept of vulnerability in a more introspective way. I chose to present it in Japan because I felt attracted by the spiritual dimension given to nature and the melancholy associated with the ethereal evanescence of beauty. My costume and scenography were influenced by traditional Japanese aesthetics such as Ikebana, the Japanese floral art. At the antipode of the European still life from the seventeenth century, I fell attracted by the Japanese elegant minimalism and the way each element symbolises fundamental aspects of the existence. The focus on limited elements, like the exaggerated buffer of my dress mimicking the petals of a flower or the balance between positive and negative areas where emptiness was a feature of the spatial composition, were a way to pay tribute to Japan.
Elodie Silberstein, photography of the performance, 2012 / photo 3331 Arts Chiyoda © Elodie Silberstein
During my residency, I learnt that my father had died and then I realised what I was looking for: the strength to recover from his absence. I found it looking at the cherry blossom. Before to go, I though that their short-lived period of blossoming was an allegory of the transience of the human condition. However, the festive atmosphere of joy and sharing in the park were very far from the meditative mood I had expected. I realised that my quest was not about death but about life among adversities. This cleavage between reality and my preconceived ideas raised some questions about the representation of Japanese culture abroad. This is one of the subjects I am having the chance to investigate through a conversation with the writer and critic Fumio Atsumi. The end result will be the publication of a book.
Elodie, are there any addresses you recommend in Tokyo?
http://www.yaso-peyotl.com/ A very very unsettling exhibiting space with a shop, a true atypic cabinet of curiosity.
http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/ a bilingual guide
http://www.artspacetokyo.com/artmaps/ a bilingual guide
http://www.grimoire.jp/ a vintage boutique which is out of time
http://www.mori.art.museum/eng/index.html very beautiful contemporary art space with a cherry on the cake: a sweeping view from the 53rd floor.
http://kmc.eco.to/alice a maid café on the theme of alice in Wonderlands. It is tucked away in the trendy neigbourhood of Akihabara.
http://www.ysarts.net/ an antique shop very close to the ultra chic neigbourhood of Ginza. In the same unassuming building, other boutiques and art galleries are hidden, a beautiful find.
Interview by Severine Levrel
To find out more about Elodie Silberstein’s work, please visit:
http://www.elodiesilberstein.com/
Art Flow 