8 week residency over the months of February and April 2021.
Restitution July 2021.
Artist residency supported by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of the Capsule system.
With the support from the gîte An olive tree in the stars.
© Léonie Pondevie
At the end of the call for projects and artists launched in May 2020, Stimultania invites Leonie Pondevie, artist photographer living in Lorient, for this new creative residency.
Around Bollène, archaeological excavations organized in the XNUMXth century made it possible to find a lead salmon originating from Givors. There are no salmon in the Rhône. There are eels, shad, pike, lot, largemouth bass, carp, black or spotted gobies, jumping or golden mullet, lampreys, trout, perch, monkfish. And sturgeons before the construction of two dams made them disappear. But no salmon. Never.
(...) I will find out later that salmon is the name given to ancient ingots. But whatever. It will be a pretext for strolling and exploring the territory of Givors, that of the city and its countryside.
It is with this framework that Léonie Pondevie arrives in Givors, in February 2021. For a month, whether wind, rain or snow, the photographer crisscrosses the city and follows its rivers: the Rhone river but also the two rivers that flow into it, the Gier and the Garon. She walks for long hours, photographing places, details, people; picking up on its way vestiges, pieces of glass and coals, traces of the industrial past of the city.
At the water's edge, Léonie Pondevie also meets: fishermen in action, young people who linger, walkers with or without canines but also a group of study technicians from the Gier Rhone mixed union and the famous rescuers- jousters from Givors. She discusses background and history with the director of cultural affairs and former director of the Maison du Fleuve Rhône, with the municipal archivist. No one has heard of the Givors salmon, but they all tell him a lot of other things, accompanying him in his approach between archeology and poetry of the place.
An exhibition in the glass roof of Stimultania and a time of exchange with the people encountered seals the first month of residence.
Mid-term restitution, end of February 2021 © Stimultania
During the second, in April, Léonie Pondevie slowly finds her marks. Grass has grown in the places visited and the light is no longer the same, but its production is refined and a very beautiful photographic set is emerging. Léonie Pondevie imagines a route, a sort of “treasure hunt” which will invite curious walkers to follow in her footsteps and discover, as they go, hidden fragments of the final edition of the project.
The final restitution of this beautiful project is organized over several stages: launch of the course in July 2021, accompanied by a public screening to dive into the intense and gentle universe offered by the photographer. An exhibition is also planned during 2021-2022.
Final restitution, July 22, 2021 © Stimultania
COURSE
EDITION AND SCREENING
Discover the artist's final edition combining photographs and fragments of texts in the form of postcards, as well as a slide show shown in Givors during a series of outdoor screenings.
Leonie Pondevie is a photographer born in 1996 in Angers. A graduate of the European School of Art in Brittany, she is a member of the Collectif Nouveau Document. For her, landscapes are a reflection of our society, which leads her to question anthropization, that is to say the impact of Man on nature through the transformation of territories, whether this either through industrialization or urbanization. She uses many mediums and techniques such as video, installation, ceramics or drawing. The wanderings and the wandering allow him to carry out a photographic inventory of spaces and, in a second step, the Google Earth software allows him to deepen his investigative work.
