Opening: 27th August 2015 from 5pm to 7pm
27th August / 11th September 2015
Open from Wednesday to Sunday from 1pm to 5pm
LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE is delighted to host Italian artist Chiara Pergola for the fifth year of the exchange program with Rad’Art art center in Mercato Saraceno Italy. This site-specific residency opens on August 27 from 5:00pm to 7:00 pm. Using a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, Chiara Pergola presents a work called ParЖour (reads ‘’parjour’’).
Chiara Pergola’s research is linked to the idea that the artistic production is a way of tracing the mutual influence between subject and the context. For her residency at LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE, her artistic approach unfolds in two parts. First, exploring German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s (1892 – 1940) notion of the marking of a territory, she will wander the streets taking pictures of the urban narrative: letters from signs and information boards. According to Benjamin, just like animals marking their territory, humans also use a form of ‘’marking’’ to retrace their steps in their daily life.
She breaks down the words, picking only letters. Refusing to use lettering specific to multinationals, for instance the M of MacDonald, Pergola thus makes sure that the markings collected give the most faithful image of the cultural reality of her exploration field.
In the second phase, in keeping with her process initiated in Italy, Chiara Pergola brings her research forward by translating an excerpt from the Tao Shījīng. According to Pergola, this very ancient Chinese poetic text, when translated, goes trough a transformation that reflects the personality and the cultural background of the translator. There are as many interpreta-tion of the Tao as there are people who translate it.
Determined to enjoy fully the freedom that a residency at LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE affords her, the artist intends to experiment and enrich her approach through several interactions with the citizens of Québec City.
Parжour is a wayfaring project carried out in different countries and languages: the phrases written with this technique and the paths covered along the time are documented through video, but they can be displayed with different shapes –video installation, photography, artist book or web platform – according to the specific context.
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After the studies in architecture (1990) and her first class honours degree in biology (1997) Chiara Pergola graduated in painting (2009). She worked for five years in a multinational company, managing the packaging area: this experi-ence has focused her attention to the way the relationships between individuals develop in the global economy. At present, in addition to her artistic activity, she teaches mathematics, a discipline that is deeply related to the concep-tual research. She also works as an adjunct professor for art schools and fine art academies.
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Text: Claude Chevalot
Source : Carol-Ann Belzil Normand (418) 529-2715
LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE
185, Christophe-Colomb Est, Quebec (Quebec) G1K 3S6 • T (418) 529-2715 • F (418) 529-0048
http://www.chambreblanche.qc.ca • info@chambreblanche.qc.ca • Open from Wednesday to Sunday from 1pm to 5pm
chiara pergola 