Lou-Andréa Lassalle-Villaroya

The multiple forms that Lou-Andréa Lassalle-Villaroya creates are the result of a writing process based on a constantly evolving source diagram, which features the fantasised doubles of many of her family members. Each portrait is a visual translation enhanced with a number of literary, philosophical, theological, filmic or ethnographic references. The contexts in which her works are produced directly influence the aesthetic and significant evolution of these characters. Her personal life is intertwined with architecture, the environment, founding narratives, legends and myths, placing her lineage on a patiently constructed Olympus that she calls her Cosmogony.

In addition to her family-related production, Lassalle-Villaroya has also been working on a fictional counterpart to her native village since 2012, thus broadening the scope of her identity to a geographical scale. The project brings to life the Caylus Culture Club, a secret society directly inspired by the sociocultural context of her village. It will provide opportunities for multiple collaborations, and its evolutions are meant to facilitate performances and exhibitions. This process of ingesting a reality retranslated into fiction in order to offer new plastic and/or living forms to the world – often conveying her deliberate flirtation with folklore – is a permanent feature of Lou-Andréa Lassalle-Villaroya’s work. Her works are never completely static and are part of a global narrative, the forms of which the artist consistently reworks with every new project and proposition.