Since the 1980s, Nathalie Talec has been developing a multifaceted body of work (photography, video, installations, painting, drawing, performance) inhabited by motifs of cold—particularly snow—and refuge, as well as the heroic, embodied figure of the artist as an explorer. “I believe there is a strong connection between the figure of the polar explorer and that of the artist. Both venture into unknown territories, challenge reality […] It has nothing to do with the body and its endurance, but rather with what constitutes a person in their environment, in their sensations, their movements, their thoughts.”

From Jeu de survie en chambre froide (Cold Room Survival Game, 1985), where she imagined a confined space in which the artist retreats, to Peintures de détresse (Distress Paintings, 2008), and the famous Autoportrait avec paire de lunettes pour évaluation des distances en terres froides (Self-Portrait with Distance-Evaluation Glasses in Cold Lands, 1986), Nathalie Talec has consistently metaphorized the possibility of spaces or pathways for human existence, persistence, and survival.

Equating her artistic journey to that of an adventurer, she shares with the latter a common interest in science: “I have always approached art as an adventure story, a scenario to be adapted, a score to be written, a heroic experience to be shared.” In the context of commissions for public spaces, the artist creates works that function as habitable spaces for the human mind—salutary fictional spaces of projection, “refuges for thought” where reality seems to give way, receding in favor of the reality of the artwork itself, which indeed signals the possibility of a spiritual experience—both fragile and tenacious, sheltered and conquering.

Jeanne Brun, Deputy Director of Collections at the Centre Pompidou, 2013.

Languages spoken: French and English

Photo credit: Pierre-André Teiller