the essential
The annual exhibition of the Cimaise workshop opens its doors until the end of June at the Salle Balène. Danie Faurie highlights the talent of his students as well as the works of an artist from Maurs, Valérie Gendre. Encounter.
For almost two weeks, the Salle Balène gives pride of place to contemporary art by housing the new Cimaise exhibition. Danie Faurie’s workshop located on rue Emile Zola offers a broad overview of the work of his talents in this collective exhibition which opens the summer cultural season in Figeac each year. The event is also an opportunity to honor an artist invited by Danie Faurie. This year, the artist from Figeac has chosen to present the original work of Valérie Gendre based in Maurs, who is part of the FLAC, Forum Lotois d’Art Contemporain. “It scares and pleases me,” confides the guest artist who unveils works created especially for the occasion in Figeac. “It’s very big here so I made large formats. These are mainly collages that I make by collecting leftover posters from all over Figeac. I only use that, it’s reconstruction” explains Valérie Gendre who has been practicing the art of collage for almost fifteen years. Tempted today by sculpture, she began her artistic journey with painting on porcelain. She then followed training at the prestigious École Boule on old-style frescoes.
“Everyone sees what they want according to their sensitivity”
For the past year, she has been particularly interested in collecting advertising and recent election posters. By tearing off several layers of posters, she sometimes discovers surprises between each layer of paper which she then soaks. “Then I recreate from what I found. I don’t add anything else, I make do with what I have. I often start with one or two colors and I reconstruct a poster. is very visual. The visual artist can spend almost a week on each canvas. A series of these latest large-format collages that she could entitle “Faire le mur” is lined up until the end of June on the walls of the Salle Balène. One of the works, perhaps the most personal on display, suggests the word Adieu, which Valérie Gendre dedicates to a deceased friend. On another, a cat appeared as the composition and successive collages progressed. “Everyone sees what they want in fact according to their sensitivity. That’s what’s interesting,” smiles the jack-of-all-trades artist who also presents his lead-based works in this exhibition. “I’ve been working with lead for around twenty years. It’s a very heavy metal but also very malleable, it melts, it twists. It’s the volumes that appeal to me.” Valérie Gendre will have a series of exhibitions in the Lot with the FLAC in Figeac then Cahors, and in the fall at the Gabriel museum in Latronquière.
