FREE ENTRY
FROM WEDNESDAY TO SATURDAY
14 p.m. - 18:30 p.m.
Media Coverage
Exhibition produced as part of the Residence 5 stars, supported by the Ministry of Culture within the framework of the Capsule.
With the support of the DRAC Grand Est, the Grand Est Region and the City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.
With the support of Imagery as part of the “Contre vents et marées” program, supported by the Brittany Region in collaboration with acb - contemporary art in Brittany.
Léonie Pondevie is the 2020 winner of the call for projects 5 stars, supported by the device Capsule of the Ministry of Culture. Young graduate of the European School of Art in Brittany, she is invited to a creative residency in Givors (69). His project ? Go in search of lead salmon discovered during archaeological excavations in the XNUMXth century.
In February 2021, Léonie Pondevie set foot in Givors for the first time. For a month, whether wind, rain or snow, the photographer mingles with a whole new curiosity in the river and the rivers. She walks, photographs and picks up round pieces of glass and concrete. In May, the puddles of light dazzled her, Léonie Pondevie no longer found the romantic sea green in her images. We have lunch together, the artist shows us her work, her stratagems, she tells us about her weekends with the team of jousting rescuers, the banks, the bridges, the plant collectors, the traces of beavers. When she organizes a beach day, people hurry and enjoy swimming. Quickly she wanted to take everyone on a cruise on the Rhône, to rent boats.
She loved Givors so much these few weeks. His images are beautiful and sad, the waters full of fish and sparkling. Despite the Gold Card boxes and illiko Cash tickets, heavy water and moldy stones, the river has taken its place. We scrutinize the green and red markers, the dormant lagoons. The road is clear.
“Crossing the Rhône at Givors means crossing an ocean and entering new land. From the open sea she remains impassive on the horizon, fringed with wild and mysterious shores where to run her ship aground; legends have made her an islander. She is both Eden and the monster. We dream of it or we dream of leaving it. » Léonie Pondevie
Celine Duval
The river exhibition presented here - the result of the work carried out during this creative residency - is the subject of an unprecedented collaboration: it is the first co-production carried by the two establishments of Stimultania, in Givors and in Strasbourg, of Imaging in Lannion, member of the Diagonal network. Léonie Pondevie's photographs are also visible in a route of eight geolocated caches in Givors.
More than an inventory of a French commune, the artist recounts the conquests and illusions, the adventure of gold miners, the fried bleaks and contaminated territories, the cry of the black kite and the thrill of the highway.
I come from the mainland. I have crossed the river several times, completed the initiatory journey. Crossing the Rhône at Givors is crossing an ocean and entering new land. From the open sea, she remains impassive on the horizon, fringed with wild and mysterious shores where her ship can run aground; legends have made her an islander. She is both the Eden and the monster. We dream of it or we dream of leaving it. Because in Givors, you have to gain a foothold, you have to take off there, and move away. To go away and stay at the same time. Givors, for a while, produced dreams of foundation, fantasies of renewal, of recreation of the world. Some have come from far away to settle there. Because this island is the place of all possibilities. It is an anchor for those who inhabit it and experience it. To do as in Givors is to make your island.
Léonie Pondevie, May 2021
Views of the exhibition © Léonie Pondevie
FOR FURTHER
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 Google Earth software first allows him to carry out a photographic inventory. Secondly, she explores the territory and deepens her investigative work through photography, then writing, drawing and installation.
