Les Heidies sont un duo féminin : Caroline Denervaud performe, Pascaline Dargant photographie. De leur amitié est née cette collaboration artistique en 2014.
Dans un cadre défini d’unité de temps, de lieu et d’action, les Heidies explorent, sculptent le geste et la matière pour en extraire un instant d’équilibre fragile.
Elles travaillent toujours selon le même processus : recherche du lieu dans un premier temps, définition d’une matière à explorer, choix des vêtements et/ou des accessoires et couleurs que Caroline rassemble et portera. Ni sketchboard ni chorégraphie : elles ne prédéfinissent rien en dehors de ces éléments.
Puis elles se lancent, sans filet – mais avec un dispositif photographique simple : lumière naturelle, appareil, trépied. Seuls l’instant et l’instinct les guident, dans un dialogue où Caroline, sans montrer son visage, met son corps en mouvement, joue, propose, et où Pascaline capte, suggère, renvoie. Animé tant par l’une que par l’autre, le shooting devient un ping-pong créatif, un échange continu et symbiotique qui met sur un même plan présence féminine, décor, matière et mouvement.
Puis c’est le choix des photos, à deux, avec la même fluidité que lors des prises de vue.
Enfin, Pascaline assure la post-production, optimisant les images sans recourir au montage.
The Heidies are a female duet: Caroline Denervaud performs, Pascaline Dargant photographs. Their artistic collaboration was born from friendship in 2014.
Within a well-defined frame of time, place and action, the Heidies strive to explore, shaping gesture and matter in order to create moments of fragile equilibrium.
Their work always follows the same process: they look for a location first, define a material to experiment with, choose clothing and/or accessories and colors that Caroline combines and wears. No sketch board, no choreography: they don’t define anything in advance outside of those basic elements. Then they simply go for it, employing a very simple photographic installation: natural light, camera, tripod. They are guided only by the moment and their instinct, in an incessant dialogue where Caroline, without ever showing her face, puts her body in motion, plays and proposes, while Pascaline captures, suggests and mirrors. The shooting session is jointly conducted by both of them, in a game of creative ping pong, a continuous and symbiotic exchange that has to do all at once with feminine presence, decor, matter and movement.
Then comes the time to select the photographs, together, with the same fluidity as during the shoot.
Lastly, Pascaline handles the post-production, optimizing the images without ever resorting to montage.
Publications:
Elle, US / Hajinskymag, Londres, Berlin, Amsterdam
Represented by Tappan Collective, Los Angeles
https://www.tappancollective.com/collections/the-heidies
Tappan's Interview (August 2017)
What inspired you to leave Switzerland and settle in Paris?
Caroline: I followed a friend. I was in London for a year to study dance and after a bad injury couldn’t dance anymore. Paris was an opportunity to rebound, to explore something else elsewhere.
Pascaline: I settle to my grandmother’s house at the age of 18 to practice theatre classes in Paris. I went 5 days a week to watch movies, theatre, exhibitions… and I’m here since 25 years!
What inspired you to begin collaborating in your artistic practices?
Pascaline: I’m very fond of Caroline's work. she is so sensitive, intelligent and delicate. One day she asked me to shoot her dancing. Joing our universe was very interesting. We decided to explore together.
Caroline: I wanted to say something through my body, dancing. I asked Pascaline if she could take pictures of that performance. Her eyes were so delicate and careful! Feeling that respect and freedom in front of someone is rare… It was our first story and we decided to create and explore together.
How did you conceive of the Heidies as a collaborative artistic endeavor? Within a defined framework of units of time, place and action, we explore gesture and material to extract a moment of delicate balance.
And what inspired the name behind it?
Heidi is a little girl who lives with her grandfather in the Swiss montains. Her character belongs to the Swiss cultural heritage. We share in our craft her values: freedom, simplicity and authenticity. And we like the prononciation close to "ideas".
Where do you find inspiration in daily life and your environment?
Caroline: The inspiration comes as an envy to be and create together. It starts, as Pascaline says, from a subtle, little exchange first. The inspiration comes during the shooting too, as we are together, in the place and let go.
Pascaline: We are very close friends. We talk every day. Only a word, an image, a sensation even a smell can initiate new artistic desires.
How have The Heidies developed over the past few years?
Pascaline: We started our artistic collaboration as a joy to meet and create together. We recently worked for a fashion brand, the idea of exploring for others is exiting and we’ll continue to shoot and perform for fashion in autumn.
Caroline: We know now the simplest is the stronger, the more spontaneous the purer. And we know each other better and better!
Tell us about the process behind your shared practice and this new body of work specifically?
There’s no rules. We let the energy and the moment decide, when together in a place. Pascaline shoots and Caroline performs, but we can also perform together. The final selection is made together and Pascaline works on the pictures.
How are your individual practices reflected in The Heidies?
Even if we each other have our own part (Pascaline takes the pictures, works on the post production; Caroline moves and selects the cloths for a shooting) the creation comes through a constant exchange. We evolve in symbiosis.
What part of your art process is most exciting to you? The moment when the shooting, inspiration, "letting go" and action intertwine into one. And then viewing the images afterwards is always exciting.
Who are some contemporaries or figures in art history who have inspired your work?
We have many common inspirations: Francesca Woodman, Bill Viola, Helena Almeida, Mark Borthwick, Viviane Sassen, Yves Klein, Nikki de St Phalle.