Virginie Hervieu

Virginie Hervieu-Monnet uses garbage and shopping bags, plastic covers, building restoration nets, wool and glass, which she subjects to transformations that generate the work of art, the shape of which is the result of the material’s reaction. However, while this chain of operations is the most obvious aspect of her creative process, it is far from being exclusive. The interventions on these materials can also be someone else’s doing. They can be anonymous in the case of found objects, or carried out by a collaborator, as was the case during a residency at the Centre International d’Art Verrier (International glass-making centre) in Meisenthal. The transformations can also be the result of entropic phenomena due to the quality of the material itself. Because of the central role played by the material, which, rather than be shaped into a predesigned configuration, determines the shape of the work itself, Virginie Hervieu-Monnet’s output is rooted in the artistic lineage of Anti-form.
(Marie Adjedj, excerpt from the presentation of the Activité exhibition, February 2017)