Naïs Marcon (1999)

CP: Hello Naïs, we met at the end of 2022 when you told me about your stay in the Czech Republic as part of an Erasmus program between the Aix-en-Provence School of Fine Arts and AVU. You kindly shared your experience there and pointed out some places of interest to visit. You stayed there for a year. What did you take away from this experience?

NM: I loved discovering different aesthetics and pedagogical approaches in art. It was a dense and enriching experience that allowed me to broaden my artistic vision and enhance my practice.

 

Art Education

 

CP: What do you mean by different ways of teaching art?

NM: The Prague School of Fine Arts operates on the same principle as the Paris School of Fine Arts: at the beginning of each academic year, you choose a research studio led by one or more artists. This system allows for a continuous relationship with your mentors who track your progress. I studied for a year in the studio of Pavla Sceranková & Dušan Zahoranský.

 

Techniques

 

CP: Why oil rather than acrylic?

NM: I am more sensitive to the colors of oil, for both aesthetic and practical reasons. I like the relationship with time that oil painting induces, as well as the chemistry and the process of making the paint. For the "Présent.e.s" exhibition, I use both natural pigments and pre-prepared tube paints.

 

Creative Process

 

CP: Do you need to create an ambiance when you paint?

NM: I have a kind of ritual: I burn incense with Armenian paper; the smell and the smoke help me concentrate on my painting work.

 

CP: Do you listen to music?

NM: Yes, sometimes, but I prefer to listen to podcasts, such as crime chronicles or life stories that fully capture my curiosity and attention and lead me to a state of maximum concentration, which music (with its changes in rhythm and melodies) does not do for me.

 

CP: And when you listen to music, which singers and musicians accompany you?

NM: Singers or bands I've been listening to since I was little at home: Alain Souchon and the iconic song "Foule Sentimentale", Manu Chao, but also more recent and electro bands like "Sexy Sushi". I often listen to the SlowFocus infinite playlist on NTS radio.

 

CP: Are you a musician yourself?

NM: I play a bit of chromatic accordion and guitar.

 

Inspiration and Themes

 

CP: How do you start your paintings?

NM: I mainly get inspired by photographs and/or screenshots that I take instantly, then sort and keep before translating them into paintings. These shots mostly represent my surroundings and are initially taken with my phone. The colors and shades in my works often diverge from the photographed reality. For example, black is very present in the photographs, but I remove it in my paintings because this color does not exist in nature and I find it too harsh. Instead, I opt for sepia, which allows me to introduce softer and more subtle nuances.

 

Exhibition and Language

 

CP: Why did you title this exhibition "Présent.e.s" and why use inclusive writing?

NM: In my daily life, I use inclusive language as much as possible, especially in writing. This language seems more consistent with our times and its inclusivity issues, and it's also a simple strategy of "care" for others. The title “Présent.e.s” refers to a generation living in the moment and focusing on the present. This generation, marked by instability, economic, social, and ecological crises, no longer necessarily projects itself into the future as the previous generation did. Influenced by their own parents, heirs of a past of war, they were more focused on remembering the past and building a more stable future.

 

Biography and Influences

 

CP: Tell us a bit about your background. You were born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1999, and you studied at the Aix-en-Provence School of Fine Arts. What motivated you to pursue art studies?

NM: I always knew I wanted to pursue artistic creation. I started with drawing and then joined a School of Fine Arts, which allowed me to discover many different techniques and mediums. This school confirmed my desire to continue in artistic creation and opened up new perspectives and possibilities for my work.

 

CP: You also studied at the AVU School of Fine Arts in the Czech Republic. How did this experience influence your artistic practice?

NM: This period of my life was very enriching. Living and studying in another country allowed me to meet many people, mainly in the art sector. These encounters even led to the creation of a short film titled "STOP BEING MISERABLE" in collaboration with Ansilde Chanteau. It was also a stimulating challenge to create artistic works while completely losing my bearings in a country with different issues, a different language, and aesthetics influenced by other cultures. The encounter with Pavla Sceranková and Dušan Zahoranský was particularly decisive; they supported me a lot in my creative process and fully integrated me into their studio.

 

Artistic Practices and Themes

 

CP: Your artistic practice revolves around common spaces, focusing on the porosity between urban public spaces and digital public spaces. Can you tell us more about this approach?

NM: What interests me in this porosity are the many connections we maintain in our digitized lives. The digital space, being mainly public, reflects systems similar to those we know in the physical world. For me, common spaces are very inspiring because they are shaped by the use people make of them. Just as our behaviors evolve depending on the street we cross, they also evolve on social digital platforms. The influence of our environment interests me greatly, as it raises political questions about the use of common spaces, such as individual freedoms, surveillance, and our power of action. I particularly enjoy seeing people reclaim these spaces and create new possibilities.

 

CP: You work on the global notion of "crises" based on Yves Citton's works. Why this theme?

NM: I greatly appreciate Yves Citton's writings, whose analysis seems very accurate and relevant to me. When I was writing my research thesis, I was particularly struck by reading "Renverser l'insoutenable". In this book, Yves Citton questions the notion of crisis as supposedly temporary. Indeed, we are facing a succession of seemingly endless crises. These crises accumulate, and we live in a set of unresolved tensions, as we never return to an initial state before the crisis. I find this issue compelling because the crisis is always current; it sometimes transforms but never completely disappears. Its presence or traces are always found.

 

Techniques and Influences

 

CP: You are influenced by the concepts of hacking and diversion. How do these ideas manifest in your work?

NM: I appreciate these concepts for their philosophy of reuse, their way of thinking about things differently, and their approach to creation from existing objects. In my artistic practice, I divert objects from their primary function. For example, in one of my pieces titled "Alarme!", I retrieved anti-theft gates from a department store to integrate them into an alarm system modified via Arduino. This diversion of materials seems particularly relevant to our time, as it addresses ecological, ethical, and economic concerns. In the "Présent.e.s" exhibition, I made a large part of the frames and canvases myself, while the other part comes from recycling, which aligns with my artistic ideology.

 

CP: The issues of interactions, real-time, attention, and distractions are also vectors of inspiration for you. Can you tell us more?

NM: At the Aix-en-Provence School of Fine Arts, where I studied in a digital art research studio, these issues were particularly present. For me, the notion of attention is paramount, especially in the artistic field; there can be no art without attention, and it is precious. The notion of attention is also closely related to social networks and our phone usage. These themes are present in my creations, and I often depict phones or images from them. My painting "Screenshot of 02/11/2022" illustrates a whole economy of attention (books on Instagram, collages of messages and reactions, etc.). By passing through painting, this attention is frozen and requires a different look due to its form. Yves Citton has also written a lot about the attention economy, which enriches my reflection on the subject.

 

CP:Thank you very much, Naïs, for this rich and inspiring sharing. Do you have any final words for our visitors?

NM: Thank you very much, Catherine, for this interview, and thank you to those who read it to the end! I think the time we live in is very tense and anxiety-provoking, but in its complexity, it also becomes very inspiring. I encourage everyone to take care of themselves during this period and to pursue what makes them happy. For me, it will be artistic creation, which represents an opportunity to shape our world according to our desires.

See you very soon ~