Cécile Bart

Born in 1958 in Dijon (France), she lives in Marsannay-la-Côte (France).

For twenty years or so, Cécile Bart has been working on an unusual project which uses turn by turn paint, the interplay between its depth and its surface, its modulation through light, the picture as screen, the eye and the way it sees, and the place of the viewer.

Made in situ, her paintings are executed on light fabric in such a way that the surface remains relatively transparent. Thanks to this investigative tool, the paint is always tried and tested by its environment. More recently, the use of cotton threads and wool, stretched vertically, has enriched the range of her optical “tools”.
 

What will you show for le Printemps de septembre?

A lighting which makes me like the night as much as the day. Which makes stones move like water.

What does the festival’s subtitle “Here where I am doesn’t exist” mean to you?
This negative proposition is too closed. I feel more at ease in a wobbly posture, being slightly off-centered in front of the here and now. While propping myself up very solidly on the reality of things here, present at the moment when I’m here, exacerbating their component parts, enlarging the grain, to open up time and feel it differently.

What does art help you accomplish?
Precisely trying to be present in the world and in myself, at the moment when I’m having this experience, being one with, embracing, taking, revealing… or alternatively occupying a place, staying there, and going away leaving a trace, a time; you know, making circles in water like Henri Salvador.