Laurie Joly
French videomaker
biography
Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
L.J. : I am a French multidisciplinary artist born in Lyon. I am now living and I have been working in Paris since 2008. I graduated in Art from Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design and Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée University. Then, for two years, I have been working as an artist-researcher with new technologies in the EMeRI/FDM research laboratory of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Meanwhile I have been working on a Thesis in Art, combining practice and theory. I am currently completing this thesis at the University Paris 8.
2. When, how and why started you filming?
L.J. : My first video was a video-performance. From 2001 until 2006 I only used video that way : carrying out my projects through this double status, at the same time a performance and a video. In another way, sometimes the video was just used to keep some marks of a performance, like a raw material without video or sound editing. In 2007, I started to carry out independent videos, often very short, also video projections and video installations (interactive or not).
3. What kinds of topics have your films?
L.J. : All my artwork focuses on Body and Identity. Besides, it explores various issues : aesthetic, political and social. For example in the video “0000000002†(2007), part of the Festival Cologne Off X – Total Art, I took an active interest in the topical standard beauty and its norms on the body as well as on the flesh. I carried out several projects through the idea of an evanescence of the body and its identity, like “NoName†(2007) or “LipstickPerformance†(2006)… At this moment and since 2009, I have been working more precisely around the questions of the surveillance as the first form of power on bodies and the confrontation between the body and technology. I explore the relation between the body’s presence in the physical world and its co-presence in the digital spaces.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
L.J. : I don’t really have rules, rather preferences but it depends on the project. Static shot is maybe the most recurrent in my video practice for different such as focusing directly on the look on something, playing with it when there is a movement inside. I also think that it’s because even when I am filming I firstly think like a photographer.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
L.J. : To begin with, I used analog video cameras. Now I have a digital camera, which can film thus I can keep my photographer reflexes. For one of my works, “Co-présences†(2010/2012), I needed to film in spaces where it was unauthorized. Then I used a mini video camera and camera glasses. It really was an interested experience because camera glasses give a certain point of view and nobody looks the object like with a normal video camera : It is less visible and the video maker is more anonymous. The different captures I made helped me to build this project, which is a tactile and sound cartography, but there are not visible in its final form. They are just a part of the process. Now I am thinking about carrying out something else with this type of camera, maybe a video installation.
6. These days digital technology is dominating also video as a medium. In which way the digital aspect is entering the creation of your videos, technologically and/or conceptually?
L.J. : The adaptation is a reality for the artists in any art medium. In my practice, the most important is that I want to question, and after I find the best form to show it. I used progressively digital technologies for different reasons but it is not exclusive. I think we can’t be totally for or against technology. However when we use it, and we do more and more daily, as artists we have to grow away from it so I can better question it. I do both of it in my practice and in my theoretical research.
7. How do you finance your films?
L.J. : Till now, I have been financing my projects by myself.
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team? If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
L.J. : In generally, I work individually. My artistic collaborations are really punctual but when it happens I am always surprised and touched by the dialogue created between artists. By the way, this creation of a dialogue as well as its opening will be a part of the questioning of my next collaborative video project that we are making at the moment with the artist Parya Vatankhah.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
L.J. : I have always been interested in the question of the motion, whether it be of the image, in the image, of the sound. It is not something that I try to conceptualize through my artwork or my theoretical research, but it is always present in my reflexion and so in my art process. I really like the videos of Martin Arnold or the video installations of Ken Jacob. It is not a direct influence but their works on the movement are manifest of a certain approach of the Image as a plastic material. On this point, and for a part of my present work, we have a similar consideration.
10. What are your future plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
L.J. : Since 2010, I have been developing a project entitled “Composingsâ€. It is based on the idea that the bodies, by their presence and mobility, can reveal a space. It has different versions and forms. Last summer I began the version V, which will be an installation with several video projections. Each will show a space owned by a city. At this time I have a video from Brussels and another from Roma. As I want to gather about ten videos, I have to go and work in different big cities. And therefore I need time.
Can works of yours viewed online besides on the CologneOFF platform? Where?
My works are presented on my personal website :