LISE GAUDAIRE ^(FR)

Influenced by the ideas and activism of Naomi Klein, Baptiste Morizot and Alain Damasio that accompany her artistic practice, Lise Gaudaire has developed an oeuvre that is inseparable from the ecosystems and environmental realities of her rural childhood and the revolts that erupt there. Despite its political, socioeconomic and geographic dimensions, the photography here does not perform a documentary role. The artist’s works do not form a critique or denunciation but bear engagement and fictions in equal measure. She carries her 4X5 view camera and microphone over territories fashioned by man, in agricultural zones and wooded land that few people consider. She is mindful of the ruggedness and discretion of these environments and she breaks free from them with her Spanish projects “Oasis” and “Island”. Far from home, the restraint she feels when faced with her familiar agricultural world, fades; but not the affection she feels for those she meets. The artist’s work also happens during these moments: meeting people, getting to know each other, moments of provocation and doubt when the author’s legitimacy is challenged by the hard truth of the subjects tackled. Her photographs and writings speak with sensitivity of hope, evoking the passage from senselessness to sensibility. Today it is no longer possible for humanity to pretend it does not know, to remain insensitive to the devastation it inflicts on the planet and its life forms. “Island” reveals the power of life after exhaustion and suggests the use of anger and indignation as levers of optimism.