“My artistic practice consists in stirring up the social space in order to reawaken the political, by inventing a space within institutions that creates a poetic and critical distance from the representations imposed on their ‘inhabitants’, allowing another visual and textual narrative to emerge.”
Arnaud Théval is a visual artist whose work has, for more than thirty years, examined the representations, stereotypes and forms of confinement produced by society and institutions. He conducts long-term research in schools, hospitals, prisons and other public spaces. Through investigation, listening and a sustained presence developed alongside the people who live or work there, he seeks to bring to light the narratives and experiences that institutional structures often leave in the shadows.
Rather than taking the form of conventional art-making workshops, his practice creates spaces for research and dialogue. Photographs, texts, drawings, books, seminars and debates become the forms of a situated practice developed about, within and alongside each institution. His works shift perspectives, question hierarchies and enable people who are often reduced to a role or status to tell their stories differently.
@arnaud_theval_
https://www.arnaudtheval.com
© profile photo: Stéphane Bellanger
