Sophie Whettnall

UNIVERSO DENTRO

curated by Carine Fol
in collaboration with CENTRALE for contemporary art, Bruxelles
with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International

 

Sophie Whettnall is a visual artist, invited at this XVI edition of festival for the formal and conceptual importance of the photographic image in her creative process. In fact, she frantically collects images of landscapes, which constitute a database that feeds her iconographic vocabulary, visual sources that, depending on her inspiration, become mental landscapes.

 

The Universo Dentro exhibition was conceived as a journey capable of immersing visitors in different times: the historical time of the place, the time of the work and the time of its contemplation.

 

Through the lens of her camera or her I-phone, the artist captures light and its traces, freezes the incessant movement of nature, which is either visible or invisible to the naked eye. For more than twenty years, Sophie Whettnall has been deeply experimenting with the landscape: she observes it, scrutinizes it, studies it, feels it and interprets it to offer it to our eyes in all its brilliance and power. Observation, the origin of her drawings, photos and videos, is not static, but dynamic and multiple. The landscape is her refuge: it allows her both to protect herself, isolating herself in solitary contemplation, and to mentally project herself into its immensity.

 

The title Universo Dentro alludes precisely to this imaginative process by the artist, who, by appropriating the photographed reality, makes the visible reveal both the perceptible and the imperceptible, both the artist and the viewer.

Sophie Whettnall was born in 1973 in Brussels, Belgium where she is based and works. In 2010 her work was presented in solo exhibitions at UMFA, Salt Lake City, Fondation Miro, Barcelona and group shows including “ABC Art Belge Contemporain”, Fresnoy;  Belgian Pavilion at The World Expo, Shanghai.  Whettnall had personal exhibitions at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano; Vera Cortês Agência de Arte, Lisbon; Galerie Baronian-Francey, Brussels; Casa de Velazquez, Madrid; A Chocolataria, Espazo de experimentacion e creacion contemporanea, Santiago De Compostela; LE BLAC, Brussels.  

 

Her work has been included in many group exhibitions as Sophie Whettnall, Antonio Maro, IKOB, Eupen (2009); resilience, Galleria Continua/Le Moulin, Boissy-le-Châtel; La mirada iracunda / The furious gaze, Centre Culturel Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2008); L’emprise du lieu, curated by Daniel Buren, Domaine Pommery, Reims; Think with the sensés… 52th Venice Biennial; Viages, nuevas perigrinaciones, CGAC, Santiago de Compostelle; Sur un fil, tendu!, MAC’s, Site du Grand Hornu, (2007); The video dictionnary, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2005); Moving images, Tank.tv, ICA Digital Studio, London (2004).

Sophie Whettnall will have solo exhibition at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, in 2011.

EXHIBITION VENUE

Chiostri di San Pietro
Via Emilia San Pietro, 44/c
Reggio Emilia

1

OPENING HOURS

May 22nd to July 4th
Friday, Saturday and Sunday › 10am-8pm

Special openings
May 21st › 4 pm - 8 pm
June 2nd › 10am-8pm
June 18th and 19th › 10am-10pm

Category
Chiostri di San Pietro