I wonder if Eva Nielsenâs paintings arenât about making nature. I donât mean anything too religious here. Making nature is not about god or gods being busy creating everything there is. Neither do I mean any romanticism: no awe from the typical environmental beauty is present in her works. The âmaking natureâ expression I use is Leonard Koren vernacular for the hard activity of letting nature happen when it comes to building and designing. Koren says we should think of overgrown weeds in Japanese temples for example. We canât control them, hence we should accept them. Architecture gives in, nature comes up. What Koren calls the bona fide natural landscape can hardly be improved upon. Yet believing that building is no struggle doesnât seem so easy. Harmony is more than resignation.
I suspect that Eva Nielsen depicts this issue. Her landscapes are torn, contrasted. She often breaks a natural environment withfabricated objects. She blends the artificial with the living. She mentions the beautiful Portrait of Space by Lee Miller as one of her references. It is a 1937 photograph whose title is oxymoronic as much as the picture itself, being about a natural landscape and our own presence in it at the same time: the vast desert is seen through a gaping hole in a fly screen. The barrier between us and nature is broken and we are afraid and excited at once. I am reminded of Nielsenâs Hard Sun where an uncanny element of concrete (the very symbol of construction?) barely lets a beach view slip in through its holes. It comes with no surprise that she likes city limits.
Lastly, I want to ask what is the place of Eva Nielsenâs painting technique? The mix of built and organic comes forward first as the mix between print and paint, blending acrylic, oil and silkscreened photography. This seems too evident though. I learn that techniques exist as a single layer on her canvases, a collage. Fragments from a debate on making nature are patched together. There is again a movement away from the simplicity of replicating whatâs out there in the space of a painting. Her pictures are no representation of familiar places or sublime sensations. Her techniques are no instrument for mimesis, and here is where making nature comes in. She says that landscapes always have scars; sometimes they are found, sometimes we cause them.
Piero Bisello, 2020
Je me demande si les peintures dâEva Nielsen ne porteraient pas sur la nature crĂ©atrice. Il ne faut pas y voir de notion trop religieuse ici. Ce concept nâa rien Ă voir avec la crĂ©ation de tout ce qui existe par un ou des dieux. Je ne parle pas non plus de romantisme : ses travaux ne suscitent guĂšre lâadmiration que lâon peut Ă©prouver devant la beautĂ© classique de lâenvironnement. Lâexpression nature crĂ©atrice que jâutilise me vient du jargon employĂ© par Leonard Koren pour dĂ©signer la difficile activitĂ© consistant Ă laisser faire la nature en termes de construction et de conception. Selon lui, nous devrions penser, par exemple, aux mauvaises herbes qui poussent dans les temples japonais. Faute de pouvoir les contrĂŽler, nous devons les accepter. Lâarchitecture sâefface au profit de la nature. Ce que Leonard Koren appelle « lâauthentique paysage naturel » ne peut ĂȘtre que difficilement amĂ©liorĂ©. Il ne semble pourtant pas si simple dâimaginer que la construction nâa rien dâune lutte. Lâharmonie dĂ©passe le cadre de la rĂ©signation.
Câest lĂ un problĂšme quâEva Nielsen semble, selon moi, dĂ©peindre dans son Ćuvre. Ses paysages se veulent dĂ©chirĂ©s, contrastĂ©s. Elle rompt le caractĂšre naturel dâun environnement avec des objets fabriquĂ©s par lâĂȘtre humain. Elle mĂ©lange lâartificiel et le vivant. Cette artiste mentionne, entre autres rĂ©fĂ©rences, le ravissant Portrait of Space de Lee Miller. Il sâagit dâune photo prise en 1937 qui relĂšve de lâoxymore, tout comme son titre. Elle montre Ă la fois un paysage naturel et notre propre prĂ©sence dans ce dernier : on perçoit lâimmense dĂ©sert Ă travers lâĂ©norme trou dâune moustiquaire. La barriĂšre qui nous sĂ©pare de la nature se brise et un tourbillon de peur mĂȘlĂ©e dâenthousiasme nous embarque. Ceci me rappelle Hard Sun de cette mĂȘme artiste, oĂč un mystĂ©rieux Ă©lĂ©ment en bĂ©ton (symbole ultime de la construction ?) offre une vue restreinte sur la mer Ă travers ses trous. Il nâest donc pas surprenant quâelle affectionne les limites de la ville.
Pour finir, je mâinterroge sur la place quâoccupe la technique de peinture dâEva Nielsen. Le mĂ©lange de lâartificiel et du naturel se prĂ©sente dâabord sous forme dâune association dâimpression et de peinture, qui combine lâacrylique avec lâhuile et la sĂ©rigraphie. Ce constat semble toutefois trop Ă©vident. Je dĂ©couvre quâelle utilise aussi des techniques consistant Ă placer une seule couche sur ses toiles, un collage. Des fragments tirĂ©s dâun dĂ©bat sur la nature crĂ©atrice sont ainsi assemblĂ©s. On sâĂ©loigne Ă nouveau de la simplicitĂ© du processus de rĂ©plication de ce qui existe dans lâespace dâune peinture. Ses tableaux ne reprĂ©sentent en rien des endroits familiers ni ne suscitent des sensations sublimes. Ses techniques ne sont en rien des instruments au service de la mimĂšsis. Câest Ă ce niveau que la nature crĂ©atrice intervient. Lâartiste affirme que les paysages prĂ©sentent toujours des cicatrices, tantĂŽt formĂ©es naturellement et tantĂŽt façonnĂ©es par la main humaine.
Piero Bisello, 2020
Traduit de l’anglais par ADT International
Born in 1983, Eva Nielsen received his MA from the School of Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2009 and a bursary to study in Central Saint Martins (2008). Her work has been exhibited at public institutions including Mac/Val, France ; MMOMA, Moscow ; Plataforma Revolver, Portugal ; Perm Museum, Russia ; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark ; Palais Pisztory, Bratislava. Gallery exhibitions include Dominique Fiat, Paris ; The Pill, Istanbul ; Jousse Gallery, Paris ; Selma Feriani, London. Nielsen was the 2009 recipient of the Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts Prize and in 2014 of the Art Collector Prize. His work has been reviewed in Frieze, Artforum, Telerama, Art Press, Kunstbeeld, Le Monde and Time Out. Her work is featured in numerous public and private collections including the Mac/Val, Museum of Rochechouart, Beaux-arts of Paris, The Fiminco Fondation. In 2021, Eva Nielsen was the laureate of the LVMH MĂ©tiers d’Arts prize.
NĂ©e en 1983, Eva Nielsen vit et travaille Ă Paris.Â
AprĂšs une maĂźtrise d’Histoire et de Lettres Modernes, elle est diplĂŽmĂ©e en 2009 des Beaux Arts de Paris. LaurĂ©ate en 2008 dâune bourse Socrate qui lui permet dâĂ©tudier Ă Central Saint Martins à Londres, elle remporte le Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts/Thaddaeus Ropac (2009), le Prix Art Collector (2014), le Grand Prix de la Tapisserie d’Aubusson (2017), et a participĂ© depuis Ă plusieurs expositions collectives en France et Ă l’Ă©tranger : MAC/VAL, MMOMA (Moscou), CCCOD (Tours), MusĂ©e de Rochechouart, Plataforma Revolver (Lisbonne), LACE (Los Angeles), Babel Art Space (Trondheim), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhague), Plymouth University…
Son travail a Ă©tĂ© Ă©galement prĂ©sentĂ© lors d’expositions monographiques, Ă Paris (Galerie Jousse Entreprise), Istanbul (The Pill), Tunis et Londres (Selma Feriani) et fait partie de plusieurs collections publiques et privĂ©es (Mac/Val, FMAC, MusĂ©e de Rochechouart, CNAP). Elle est la laurĂ©ate 2021 de la rĂ©sidence LVMH MĂ©tiers d’Arts.
Piero Bisello is a Brussels-based art writer and an editor at Conceptual Fine Arts. His last book A Few Homers was recently published by Brussels-based press Surfaces Utiles.
BasĂ© Ă Bruxelles, Piero Bisello est critique dâart et rĂ©dacteur chez Conceptual Fine Arts. Son dernier livre A Few Homers a Ă©tĂ© publiĂ© rĂ©cemment par Surfaces Utiles (Bruxelles).
The paintings from the series âLâAir de Rienâ and âSurfacesâ are evocations of a fluid world. It seems as if paint and support have briefly solidified before the paint continues to drip, curve and flow. For Robbe, fluidity represents freedom. He doesnât want to control the creative process but prefers letting things run their course and to leave things to drift. Not one sketch precedes these paintings. It arises in the here and now by anticipating what happens with the material.
