Joëlle Acoulon @ artavita

Joëlle Acoulon

Location: France

I’ve always been fascinated by colours and interested in painting. Ever
since I discovered abstract, primitive and oriental art when I was a
teenager, during visits to museums, and thanks to courses organised by a
teacher outside the classroom, this attraction has been constantly
reinforced.

However, my studies in literature (3rd cycle) and my professional life led me to write for a long time. But,
at the same time, I remained captivated by everything that frees itself
from words to arouse emotion, the graphic arts and contemporary dance
in particular.

As an adult, I’ve always had friends who were artists, choreographers, photographers, amateurs and collectors. I‘ve interviewed a number of them.

I’ve
also published a portfolio called “Outre-toiles”, consisting of texts
inspired by the works of a painter friend and their reproductions. I wrote and published a book of interviews with the choreographer Jean Gaudin, Les équilibres du vertige.

As president of a non-profit gallery, I helped to organise exhibitions and curated one of them. From
2009 to 2018, still as part of an association, I organised the “Goûters
de l’art”, a biennial exhibition held in the barns of the hamlet where I
live. Unfortunately, the pandemic and the lack of volunteers put an end to this experience.

But until March 2011, apart from a few disappointing attempts, I wasn’t practising. Computers, which have been part of my world for nearly forty years, and the discovery of a fractal generator ‘unlocked’ me. Since
then, designing fractals has been the first stage in my creations,
inspired by the colours of nature, whether wild or deeply marked by man.
I first try to ‘erase’ their iterative aspect, to stay on the edge between symmetry, repetition and chaos. Duplicated,
sometimes modified, placed on textures, photos or painting backgrounds,
they combine to form a mille-feuille of images, modified until the
result suits me.

My
ambition, through my work which is based exclusively on the evocative
power of shapes and colours, is to open the doors of the imagination and
emotions, without using words. For me, it’s a question of “giving to see” in the words of Éluard, and not of explaining or indicating what should be seen.

That’s
why I don’t try to guide anyone in their reading or interpretation by
titling my creations or offering an accompanying text. The
encounter between the work and the viewer then becomes a real exchange,
a fusion of colour, atmosphere, experience and sensitivity.

Portfolio:

The colours of the world

The colourful world of nature, even when abused by man, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. A computer tool, used before the fractals were conceived, enables me to ‘steal’ the nuances of an image, whether it shows the infinitely small or the immensely large.
Little by little, images of autumn landscapes, Jupiter, remarkable bark, butterflies, animal eyes … have begun to punctuate my work.
And in 2019, this trend grew to the point of inspiring a series. It then became a long-term project entitled “The Colours of the World”.
Coral reefs, salt marshes, rice paddies, Icelandic glacier melt ponds, extraordinary sites … all allow me to explore the nuances, the richness and the infinite variety of our universe, so beautiful but so fragile.
It goes without saying, however, that these colours are only a source of inspiration and that what the photos represent has no influence whatsoever on the creation of the shapes.

“Untitled, 15 December 2023”