The French female artist Céline Paul sees a chance in Corona for artists. Together with Sarah Cassenti she holds the event series „Egon.a“ and the live online model session „Nönude“.
What kind of art do you make?
Céline: I think that I make a kind of hybrid art. I mix a lot of medium, I don’t like to be labelled.
Since when would you describe yourself as an artist?
Céline: Ouch! It’s a big word. I can’t remember maybe when I screamed at my birthday. I think that everybody and a lot of creatures are artists. Even the birds, for example when I think about The Brown Gardener which builds intricate tent-like home incredibly complex and harmonious.
How is the current situation in France concerning arts?
Céline: Because of the actual pandemic the situation is not great. However that does not prevent some from opening places of XXL art such as La Bourse du commerce. For my part, I am in another sphere. With my friend Sarah Cassenti we organize Egon.a. It is a window for artists to express themselves.
We use video conferencing for it. The artists come from many different universes. Performers, musicians, videographers, digital artists, drawers, dancers, painters, stylists etc. We are also honored to have the presence of Zoé Fornara to articulate the sessions, she’s the maestro of all this great moments!
Can you tell me a bit about Egon.a? What is it exactly?
Céline: Egon.a is an event created and performed by artists and playwrights.
Sarah: The artist’s body and gesture are sacred. I am infiltrating the breath of our free bodies on the web. Egon is a volcano in Indonesia and it’s a painter of the raw body, the .a opens up to the infinite femininity of each one – the question of the body, the inner body that passes in front, that overflows gently. On these nights, Egon.a space-time expands. The Collective joins together to emit from the volcano.
You are also present at the event „Nönude“ – what is it?
Céline: These are model sessions for drawing lovers and other mediums.
Sarah: The Nönude Libre, a LIVE drawing-alive experience, created in 2012 and conducted with my Accomplices. We are opening its space on the world wide web. „Corps-étoiles“, „Corps-movants“ simultaneously: the living scenes unfold over the continuous sound mix and video writing. The participants draw, celebrate, dance and we deploy this space-time together. Exaltation rises, beauty and grace burst forth.
„It is a scenic space, bodily, visual and sound experimentation – which we go through with the gesture of drawing and body movements.“
Sarah Cassenti about the Nönude event
I have been leading the Nönude and I have been leading the experiment since 2012. Each edition allows me to experiment, to feel, to make connections and to draw. The experience is aimed at artists, artists with a performative practice, dancers, designers, therapists, photographers, people concerned with the movement of life and their body. The workshop raises our internal joy, which makes us want, which gives everyone the means to intervene, to invent, to participate in the expansion of this moment and of ourselves.
The stage layout, the objects, the story I put there, the artists present, we unfold the adventure and the event together. During the workshop, I draw, I pose, I intervene and move objects, I make a sign to the one who poses – I raise a chin or a hand, I add a piece of clothing, which comes, I grab it and put it to work. The present is changing. The imagination of the participants is carried by the objects that surround them, by the beauty of each other’s actions. Take the time to allow a series of poses to arise, to see a free scene appearing in movement over an expanding period of time. The designer represents with what comes and what comes to him, what he catches, what speaks to him, with a lively, colorful, round, tense, flexible, calm, frantic gesture, letting the feathers rustle and dance on the paper.
The extended duration of the workshop makes it possible to be part of it entirely and to be able to perceive and grasp the details, to enter them, to become bodily and psychically this moment. Bodily, lively gestures are adjusted – in the right place – at the right time, an acceleration of the links between emotions, action, gesture, each person draws, their intervention surrounded by those in progress. The live projections of the guest artists increase the space and the bodies tenfold and permeate the inhabited areas, with colors and shapes in movement, illuminate them, hide them, cross them, the volumes of the bodies are captured in the image and the silhouettes. enter the pictures. The body re-shapes itself internally from the outside and from the inside on both sides. Workshop of 6 hours minimum, game between moving poses and drawing.
„In summary “Egon.a” and “Nönude” are intimacy actions.“
No censure, body no limits, singularity and body experimentation, no „compte à rendre“ to anybody instead of us. We keep open our flux during the pandemic as we were doing it before, we are not going to shut down. „Egon.a“ and „Nönude“ are windows to artists to express themselves and to express ourselves as well, to share with others artists in concern, an autonomous time-space, we let grow the joy together.
Did you take part in political protests? What is your opinion on this?
Céline: With our purpose about „Egon.a“ and „Nönude“ it’s a political protest. There is so much to dispute in this 21st century. We are led to believe that we live in a democrac. The political sphere is corrupt and no longer serves the citizen but other interests.
Where do you live and how is the situation in your hometown/city?
Céline: I live between Paris and South of France. Because of the Pandemic, I’m mostly in the south of France, I can’t stay in a cage. I’m a kind of feline. But Paris is very sad and too quiet for now. It’s a musical city. I am also closely linked to the electronic music scene and the wait to be able to perform in public becomes very long for musicians and Dj’s.
On which artwork do you work at the moment? What is the background to it? Can you describe the artwork a bit.
Céline: I’m interested in the notion of alien despite either. The gender, the geographical situation etc. make you, us, me as an alien. So my artwork is a sort of Odyssey from space to space. It’s articulated in two big chapter: „My_Space“ and „My_Fragment“ like a „mise en abyme“.
How has the situation about corona changed the work on art?
Céline: It changed nothing, I’m still an alien. In fact strangely it makes great connections, I regularly meet other great artists via the social network. I’m very optimistic.
How do you see the future of France for artists?
Céline: We are all earthlings so we’ll stay connected no matter what happens.
I don’t like the artist’s vision of the country where I was born, this country tends to lock everything in drawers.
More about Céline Paul you can find here
The next rendez-vous Egon.a you can find here
The next rendez-vous Nönude will take place in May 2021. To find all editions of Nönude:
nonudelibre.tumblr.com (censored)
https://nonude.org
https://corpsetoile.net/nonude-libre/
Photo title credits: Photo Arnaud Godefroy / Céline Paul
KUSO 