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| Virginie Yassef |
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For L.F.D.A. 02.140 million years ago, a flying reptile, the pterosaurus tumbled over a cliff in the Massif Central. All that remains of this prehistoric, spectacular fall are three claw marks engraved forever in the rock, and a work of art created by Virginie Yassef for the Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Alsace (2008), reworked here for La Force de l’Art 02. The life-size replica of these strange claw marks – taken out of their original setting and the historical context within which they first appeared – offers a glimpse into an imaginary, fantastical world. Rich in meaning despite its explicit title, Il y a 140 millions d’années, un animal glisse sur une plage fangeuse du Massif Central, evokes a multitude of images. From the adventures of the luckless coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons, to the lacerated canvases of Lucio Fontana, Virginie Yassef’s installation stands at the crossroads of a wealth of different registers and references. Playing on the frontiers between reality and fiction, prehistory and mythology, the artist short-circuits the multiple strata of history to create a timeless, universal, magical work. Virginie YassefA thousand leagues from reality, even if the materials constituting them come directly from such reality, Virginie Yassef’s installations and sculptures get back in touch with the popular and universal unconscious taking place in the world of the marvellous. Making unexpected associations between everyday objects and diverting them from their usual functions, she carries us into a dreamlike world, waking in us the child's imaginative powers. [M. A.] Virginie Yassef was born in 1978 in Grasse.
 Virginie Yassef, Alloy image 2 |
