Interview: J.griMo
Luca Curci talks with J.griMo during SECRET SPACES, second appointment of BORDERS ART FAIR, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

“There is an evocative strength in the poses taken by the model, who hence asserts itself as a being of flesh and thoughts. The hand of the artist then reveals the eloquent unspoken of the bodies. The process comes to its end when the visitor, gazing at the completed work, finds an echo in his own subjectivity.” Her scientific background made it possible for her to live and travel all over the world, before settling down in Maussane-les-Alpilles (south of France) by the end of the nineteen nineties. Ten years later she began her career as a painter.

Luca Curci – What are you currently working on?
J.griMo – My very last form of expression is explicitly moved towards lyrical abstraction since its purpose is no longer to transcribe an emotion inspired by visual elements, but states of mind felt half awaken, half asleep. This work is carried out as per destruction / reconstruction schemes, something we could call upcycling. I start by shredding old works, an intensely liberating gesture as well as exhilarating, as the obtained fragments reveal unsuspected qualities which were drowned in the mass. They will allow me to structure the artistic composition on my mind: I strategically paste them on the support, and then convene my sensitivity and my imagination to create their new living environment.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
JG – I have a scientific background. I have of course always drawn, colored, and every time I had the opportunity, I took classes to enhance my technique to what seemed to be for everyone around me a hobby. It could seem strange but my scientific field – math – is a key part of the answer. I believe math is an art, even though I am fully aware most people don’t! But math definitely was a starting point of my art, not only because it helped me with perspectives, proportions, geometrical construction and so on… It is more fundamental than that: for years, thanks to formal theories, my spirit got used to applying abstract to describe reality what is exactly my ambition, except that math wasn’t the way for me to be fulfilled. On a day of 2008, I was cornered: I had wandered into a live model workshop, and when I left with a dozen of charcoal sketches, something actually real I could show to anyone, I felt an inner joy, and that hadn’t happened in a long time. This is at this very moment I decided to focus on drawing, and a few months later, on painting.

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
JG – I mentioned abstract and we all know that quote from Magritte “ceci n’est pas une pipe”, which ironically reminds us that the path from the subject to the picture necessarily implies an act of abstraction. In my case I would rather talk about figurative abstraction when my starting point is something real that catches my eye and touches me. It inspires me and becomes my project. I couldn’t really explain why I feel an emotion at this very moment nor why I have the need to render this vision in my own way. It can be rhythm, contrasts, quite often the graphic aspect of what I see, some kind of encrypted writing… The image needs to be printed in my spirit and I have to make it mine before I can express it.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it your medium of expression?
JG – I have no message to transmit, neither politic nor philosophic. I just want to describe the world as I feel it, not only visual items but also inner states of mind as I recently started to do. In that way, yes, drawing and painting are my medium of expression, characterized by the ever-present energy of my pieces. It is an evolutive energy: in my first paintings, it mainly was anger and challenge. It then became more of a powerful and rhythmic energy, to finally head to sensuality. It isn’t that easy to keep track, even for myself, as my artworks are the reflection of my inwardness.

LC – How do you feel when you see your work completed?
JG – My last piece is always the most wonderful one! Except that it doesn’t last… Very soon I have to reconsider it and bring some changes. Eventually comes the satisfaction, the conviction that I’ve reached my goal and the desire to share it with others, either they like it or not.

LC – Can you explain something about the artworks you have in our exhibition?
JG – They have in common to represent naked bodies, then differences appear: for each of them I used a different type of paper, I also mixed different medias like soft pastels over colored inks on one of them, chalk and Indian Ink on another, liquid acrylic over oil pastels stripes and even shoe prints on the last one … far away from a classical live model workshop!

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us?
JG – A lot! It was a great experience for me, I had to go out of my comfort zone but every step was facilitated by the organization. It was also for me an opportunity to join work and leisure as I love traveling, especially in beautiful places like Venice.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
JG – Thanks to the platform, the artists have the chance to enjoy an incredible worldwide visibility. Exhibitions in Venice, London, Rome… are already wonderful but the exposure given by the platform goes far beyond that, with frequent contests, numerous posts etc.…