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Gäelle Choisne (1985, FR) lives and works in Paris. Sensitive to contemporary issues, Gaëlle Choisne’s practice considers the complexity of the world, its political and cultural disorder, whether it be the over-exploitation of nature, its resources, or the vestiges of colonial history, where Creole esoteric traditions, myths and popular cultures mingle. Her projects are conceived as ecosystems of sharing and collaboration, pockets of «resistance» where new possibilities are created, notably with the «Temple of Love» project. Initiated from Roland Barthes’ original essay on love, «Fragments d’un discours amoureux» (1977), Gaëlle Choisne adds a political dimension to the concept of love by paying homage to invisible bodies, minority and fragile souls, and dispossessed hearts. «Temple of love » is an evolutionary project defining itself through its modes of appearance and genesis according to its invitations and its location. The works/installations of Gaëlle Choisne have been exhibited in many institutions: (Vitry-sur-Seine), Centrale Powerhouse (Montreal), CAFA Museum (Beijing), Pera Museum (Istanbul), MAM - Musée d’art moderne de Paris, Musée Fabre (Montpellier), Zacheta Gallery (Warsaw), The Mistake Room (Los Angeles), Bétonsalon (Paris), Gr_und project space (Berlin), MAMO - Centre d’art de la Cité radieuse de Marseille, La Villette x Pompidou (Paris), Centre d’art contemporain La Halle des bouchers (Vienne), Musée archéologique Henri-Prade (Lattes), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon etc. She has also participated in several biennials and triennials: 15th Gwandju Biennial (2024), 3rd Toronto Biennial of Art (2024), 5th New Museum Triennial (2021), 11th International Biennial of Contemporary Art (GIBCA), 13th International Biennial of Lyon (2015), 12th Havana Biennial (2015), Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017) and 14th Curitiba Biennial (2017). She has been part of many residency programs in France and internationally such as “Meeting Points collaboration” with CCA -Campus Caraïbéen des Arts (Martinique), Bethanian-KW (Berlin), the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam), Atelier Van Lieshout (Rotterdam), the Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris and OPTICA & Art3 Valence (Montreal). In 2024, Gaëlle Choisne won the Marcel Duchamp Prize and, in 2021, the AWARE Prize. In 2019, she is nominated for the Ricard Foundation Prize and the Sam Art Project. Gaëlle Choisne is represented by the gallery Air de Paris, Romainville (FR).

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Aquarium Biennial Fair Fruits Installation Love Performance Plants Sculpture Shells Stèles Temple of Love Videos Workshop

Maât and the tears of God – Aware Prize - Gaëlle Choisne

Maât and the tears of God, Gaëlle Choisne © Espace Croisé.

Maât and the tears of God – Aware Prize, 2024

Espace Croisé Contemporary Art Center, Roubaix, France, 2024.
Exhibition co-produced by AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions) as part of the AWARE 2021 Prize, in partnership with DCA - Association française de développement des centres d'art contemporain.

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With the exhibition Maât and the tears of god, artist Gaëlle Choisne is raising an Egyptian temple in the former neo-Gothic convent of the Clarisse sisters.

Maât, the goddess of Egyptian mythology, embodies fairness, peace and justice for all. It was also a founding concept of Pharaonic Egypt. She is the manifestation of a universal, unchanging order that enables the world to exist. The cosmic order is one with the human order. They are one and the same. Maât personifies the balance needed for a more egalitarian society.

Gaëlle Choisne’s works suggest we do the same, to give voice to stories that have been silenced for too long. Like a gateway between different spiritualities, the exhibition blends esoteric Haitian traditions with the ancient convent, a symbol of the Catholic faith. Intimately linked to the artist’s origins, this interweaving denounces the violence associated with racism and colonisation.

Gaëlle Choisne’s installations interweave different materials (organic, noble, recycled), like monuments erected in homage to invisibilised bodies. The video installation AURA/ARUA (2023) shows a ritual dance performed by Haitian artist Kettly Noël projected onto a brass plate engraved with talismanic symbols. The work is being shown simultaneously at Netwerk Aalst in Belgium as part of the exhibition Ritual in Transfigured Time in honour of avant-garde dancer and filmmaker Maya Deren.

Reuse, seen as a form of rebirth, is found in Love is Healing – Yeshua (2022), in which two deer antlers are assembled, gilded and hung. The ‘slaughter’ of a deer refers to the head and antlers being cut off and kept as a trophy after the hunt. The work reflects the double meaning of this term. Nevertheless, as the title suggests, love is healing, and this is what Gaëlle Choisne resolves to respond to the violence.

Drawing inspiration from Maât, the artist imagines an alternative narrative: addressing wounds through the prism of love to heal them better. At the heart of the exhibition, several layers of narratives are revealed, like multiple landscapes, offering each of us the chance to think about a more loving world.

Extract from a text by Émilie Notéris