Joëlle Tuerlinckx: La Constellation du peut-être

For this large-scale solo exhibition Joëlle Tuerlinckx is offering 11 new works spread all over the island, from the art centre building to the lakeshore: a constellation of out-of-the-ordinary elements that explore the power of form to appear and disappear, and the infinite possibility of a space and an artwork. One of the exhibits—a lake-water outlet with aspirations to being a fountain—is going to join the Sculpture Wood collection.

Via these unique works—on show both inside the art centre and outside, amid the meadows, woodland and the lake—the artist explores the narrative power of form and abstraction. The visitor is invited to walk through a site made up of ground-level pieces which, based on the starry skies of the Millevaches Plateau, form another constellation of singular objects that transforms our habitual relationship with this territory and its components. Moreover, some of these shapes are inspired and governed by an iconography that takes account of the locality’s special character and what makes it attractive: the architecture of the art centre, for example, or the overall look of the lake.

The tower of Aldo Rossi and Xavier Fabre’s building becomes the locus for the wellspring and creative energy of this new landscape. The artist has delved into the lake’s industrial history and the production of electricity via the enormous mass of water that shapes the island’s contours, and the resultant works reflect her discovery of this energy. The art centre’s individual spaces dissolve into a single area of machined parts that have been reversed, displaced and modified.

The sculptures in the woods and on the lake have to be tracked down. They elude the senses, evoking and at the same time disrupting their birthplace. Among their surprises is a remarkable site-specific work, a lake-water outlet that dreams of becoming a fountain.

Questioning the infinite possibilities of a space and an artwork—from form to materiality, from presence to absence—this constellation of maybe has found in Vassiviere the very place its existence calls for.

A publication comprising texts and maps, specially designed by the artist, will enable visitors to acquaint themselves with the exhibition as a whole. In association with other international institutions the art centre will also be publishing a monographic catalogue.

Program
Performance by Christoph Fink and Valentijn Goethals
Saturday, July 7, 6pm

Talk with Catherine Mayeur, Marjorie Micucci and Michael Newman
Sunday, July 8, 11am 

Concert by Ladr.ache
Sunday, August 19, 10:30pm

Partners
Association des Amis du centre d’art de Vassivière / Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwalder, Vienna / Syndicat le Lac de Vassivière / Wallonie-Bruxelles International.

Access
Vassivière Island is located in the Limousin, 35 miles East of Limoges. Direct flights from London and many British cities to Limoges everyday.