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Daughters is a collective project created by artist-photographer Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer, architect and author Léone Drapeaud, and floral scenographer Elléa Cartier: «The notion of heritage was immediately obvious to us. As feminists, we place ourselves in the lineage of the women who paved the way for us and feel a desire to remember the past, making it visible in the present, for the future.»
While the Art Nouveau style advocated for equality among all the arts, at the turn of the twentieth century gender parity was far from being a reality. Several Art Nouveau artists have been inscribed in history, yet they include few women, unless they are associated with men. This invisibility is sometimes linked to the fragility of the chosen medium, but is most often due to the dictates of society that tend to forget the work of women.
This exhibition pays tribute to eight Art Nouveau figures by connecting them to the work of contemporary artists through the use of specific mediums in their respective practices. The selection of these contemporary artists was made through an open call on social networks, the condition being that they identified themselves as Belgian female artists and/or living in Brussels. The choice of these heiresses was made on the basis of the proximity of a medium, a technique, a subject, or a visual kinship with the work of one of the Art Nouveau artists. By presenting their works side by side, the exhibition aims to shed light on their processes and forms an intergenerational link between their practices in each medium’s art historical tradition.
The photographic diptychs have been created to reflect each artist’s world, with a «half-body» portrait, reminiscent of portraits painted as early as the 17th century, and a detail of the artist’s creative hands. For their portrait, they sit facing us against a single-colored background, wearing their work clothes and an imposing floral headdress conceived and created on the basis of their respective worlds. The headdress draws attention to the face, the bearer of our deepest identity, a vector of bonds and emotions. Plants are an important subject in the Art Nouveau style, but they also allow us to consciously reappropriate a discourse that essentializes and devalues a certain feminine nature. As for the photography illustrating the artist’s medium, it focuses on doing, by capturing the movement of their hands in action. This gesture is the language of an immemorial practice that becomes the subject of the exhibition.
During this meeting with the artists to capture their portrait, a discussion took place on their relationship to art in general and their practice in particular, their practice in particular, from which a phrase was selected to accompany the photographs. This quotation forms a link between the contemporary artist and the historical artist through their shared medium. By doing so we nourish memory, weaving links that are a source of resistance to be celebrated for their continuity through the rereading and rewriting of history, as well as the presence of women in public space.
The Exhibition “Daughters” is a common project developped in the context of Art Nouveau Brussels 2023 with the support of asbl Patrimoine & Culture (Halles Saint-Géry) and urban.brussels.
Photographe et directrice artistique / fotografe en artistiek directeur / photographer and artistic director : Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer. Autrice / schrijfster / authoress : Léone Drapeaud. Graphiste / grafisch ontwerpster/graphic designer : Céline Boveroux (Studio la Folie). Scénographe florale / bloemsierkunstenares / floral scenographer : Elléa Cartier. Assistantes photographe / assistenten schietfotograaf / assistants photographer : Camille Poitevin & Anna Safiatou Touré. Artistes / Kunstenaars / Artists : Olga Boiché, Laura Bossicart, Lou Cocody Valentino, Brigitte Danse, Camille Dufour, Chanel Kapitanj, Mégane Likin & Zyle. Textes / teksten / texts : Alice Graas, Murielle Lesecque, Alicia Yakhoui. Relecture / proeflezen / proofreading : Lou-ann Albiol-Ducos, Nikolaos Akritidis, Wim Kenis, Laura Marot, Pascal Van Steenbrugge. Remerciements / dank aan / acknowlegments : Julie de Caluwé, Lieza Dessein, Pascale Ingelaere, Thierry Wauters.