Persona muta Caroline Rivalan explores female myths and the hedonistic aspect of nature, appropriating images that she renders plastically through operations…
Persona muta Caroline Rivalan explores female myths and the hedonistic aspect of nature, appropriating images that she renders plastically through operations of montage. The images she produces in microcosms (dioramas) or macrocosms (light installation devices) mix various registers with irreverence and sarcasm. The result is a phantasmagorical universe in which the feminine holds a particular place. For Persona muta, the artist was interested in the patients of Professor Charcot at the Salpêtrière, at the end of the 19th century. Taking up the images of the photographic set-up installed in situ by the famous neurologist, Caroline Rivalan questions this exploitation of the female body by crossing figure and madness. The manipulations of these archival images turn object into subject and thus remove the authoritative figure that orchestrates these representations, in order to shift the established power relation. The aim is to deconstruct relations of domination. A graduate of La Esmeralda in Mexico City and of the Villa Arson in Nice, Caroline Rivalan has been invited several times to exhibit alongside artists such as Ben Vautier and Moo Chew Wong at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice. Her work has been exhibited since 2009 in France and abroad, notably in contemporary art centres and artist-run spaces. Photo © Grégory Copitet
