Marguerite Pilven
In his treatise called traité de l’efficacité, François Jullien describes processes of creation for which « it is essential that the effect is notsubjected to any overload from whoever produces it, and that they shouldbe careful not to add anything personal and emotional to its pure effectiveness.”This form of “efficiency” “at the polar opposite of the flamboyanteffect” is also the one that Estèla Alliaud is seeking. In deliberately neutralinteriors, she engages simple phenomena with materials that shestages: a floor covered in milk, an empty room swamped with an ashcloud, a patch of clay slowly flowing on plywood… These set spaces boththought-out and intuitive are photographed in real time. If the camera isused for its descriptive qualities, for Estèla Alliaud it is also a speculation
tool. The fragmented visions that she samples from these experiencesenhance fine phenomena: fragile equilibriums of a mass layout, discreetappearances of phenomena triggered by contacts, transitions from onestate to another. Sometimes, the artist chooses to re-establish themwith several shots so that it is possible to follow the evolutions of the
substance and the way the movement inscribes or fixes itself in it. Thissubstance thus becomes a memory, a sensitive testimony of an adventor a disappearance. Each and every one should estimate where theystand on this evolution. The eye brushes the materials and eyesightgets more refined through contact with miniscule details. Estèla Alliaudthus awakens the viewer’s sensitivity in substance, without directing ittowards a definite thematic.
Marguerite Pilven, March 2013
In Solo Project’s catalog, Basel 2013.