Catherine Ikam & Louis Fléri
Profile
Pioneers of digital arts, Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri create installations in which visitors interact with virtual characters.
"The issue is not technological virtuosity but the emotion that these artificial characters awaken in us. This comes from the fact that real-time interaction creates the illusion that an encounter has taken place." C.I - L.F.
These intermediary beings open the doors to a world of parallel realities, artifices and decoys: faces fall apart, artifacts fall in love, generative portraits are composed and decomposed in front of the spectator.
"It is a work on identity, on the way we perceive ourselves through the prism of technology that allows us to revisit different archetypes. There is this word of Emmanuel Levinas which seems to me very right: "The face which looks at me affirms me". We exist according to what we look at. We exist according to what looks at us. It is the face-to-face which makes us exist. Face to face with the other who can be our own face. Face to face with our desire to be lured..." C.I.
Trained at the school of Peter Foldès, a specialist in computer animation, and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Catherine Ikam has been working since 1980 in the concept of identity in the electronic age.
Louis Fléri started working with new technologies in the early 80s. A freelance journalist specializing in new images, he became an audiovisual producer in 1987 and has made several videograms in the field of contemporary art.
Their artistic encounter dates back to 1987 during the creation of the opera Valis commissioned fot the 10th anniversary of the Center Pompidou, of which Louis Fléri was the producer alongside IRCAM and the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Then there was the common desire, which has never been denied, to work together, to conceive new pieces in the digital field.
Their collaboration has lasted ever since.
Biography
Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri are a couple of French artists who live and work in Paris.
Forerunners in the field of video and virtual image, Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri explore the concept of identity and appearance in the electronic age. They examine the relationships and interactions between the living and the artificial, the human and the virtual.
Exhibitions (selection)
2020/2021
- Réel/Virtuel, Galerie W, Paris
2019
- Point Cloud Portrait - Cedric, 25th Festival International d'Art Vidéo de Casablanca (FIAV), Morocco
2018
- V.I.E. V.ideo I.mage E.volution, group show, Galerie W, Paris
- Artistes & Robots, group show, Grand Palais, Paris
- Biennale des Arts Numériques, Centre des Arts d'Enghien-les-Bains, Enghien-les-Bains, France
- Des femmes dans la photographie, group show, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
- Point Cloud Portrait - Jeanne, Recto VRso, 1st edition of the Festival d'Art Numérique de Laval, Laval
2017
- Media Arts Festival, UNESCO Media Arts Creative City Gwangju, South Korea
2016
- Points Cloud Portraits, Centre des Arts d'Enghien-les-Bains, Enghien-les-Bains
2015
- Atout Paik, group show, Europeans Heritage Days, Prieuré Saint-Pierre
2014
- Unpainted Faces, DX Galerie, Bordeaux
- Nuit Blanche, Maison du geste et de l'image, Paris
2013
- Deep Kiss, 50 ans d'art vidéo, group show, Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille
- Show-Off, group show, Espace Cardin, Paris
2012
- Nostalgia is an Extended Feedback, group show, Nam June Paik Center, Seoul
2009
- Deep Kiss, FIAC, Paris
2008/2009
- Digital Humains, Galerie Albert Benamou, Galerie Chicheportiche, Paris
- Nuit des Images, group show, Arte Video Night, Grand Palais, Paris
2007
- Digital Diaries, Retrospective, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
2006
- Can We Fall in Love with a Machine, group show, Woodstreet Galleries, Pittsburgh
2005
- Oscar, Paris à Shanghai, group show, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Shanghai
2004
- Digital Sublime, group show, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
2002
- Media City Seoul, 2nd Biennial of Video Art of Seoul, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
2001/2002
- Created reality, Maison Hongroise de la Photographie, Budapest
2000
- Agora 2000, IRCAM, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
- Clones, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
1999
- Portraits. Réel/Virtuel, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Monographs (selection)
2016
- Points Cloud Portraits, Centre des Arts d'Enghien-les-Bains, Editions Centre des Arts d'Enghien-les-Bains, Enghien-les-Bains
2007
- Digital Diaries, Retrospective, Jean-Luc Monterosso, Pierre Restany, Paul Ardenne, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Editions Monographic
1999
- Portraits. Réel/Virtuel, texts of Paul Virilio and Jean-Paul Fargier, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Editions Paris Audiovisuel, Paris
1991
- Catherine Ikam, Pierre Restany, Maeght Editions, Paris
1980
- Catherine Ikam, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Editions Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Prizes
2014
- Guest of honor of the Prix Opline pour l'Art Contemporain ⎮ Catherine Ikam
2019
- Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur ⎮ Catherine Ikam
2010
- Officier des Arts et Lettres ⎮ Catherine Ikam
2000
- Prix Arcimboldo de la création numérique ⎮ Catherine Ikam
1992
- Prix Imagina, category Art ⎮ Louis Fléri
Events
-
[Exhibition] Réel/Virtuel
November 27, 2020 -
[Art Fair] Galeristes 2020
October 23, 2020 -
[Exhibition] V.I.E. V.ideo I.mage E.volution
March 28, 2018
News
Reviews
Videos
-
L' Expo vue par... | Catherine Ikam & Louis Fléri
Published on January 08, 2021 -
3Questions à | Catherine Ikam & Louis Fléri
Published on December 11, 2020 -
W Inside | Catherine Ikam & Louis Fléri
Published on November 26, 2020 -
Exposition « V.I.E. V.ideo I.mage E.volution » 2/2
Published on March 30, 2018
New artworks
There are no artworks yet here