In Élise Bergamini’s work, veins take shape as flowers, lungs branch out into branches, fingers pinch the stem of a dandelion or a poppy. The artist strives to detect the existing continuity between the human body and the natural environment in which it is inserted. Scrutinised from every angle, it is the body which serves as the framework for his work, confused with plant or animal forms. The artist feeds off his surroundings, his observations, his readings, sometimes even his dreams.

 

Thinking about the ephemeral

Élise Bergamini’s work also develops a reflection on the passing of time. At first glance, her art blends into a traditional representation of femininity: a fragmented, eroticised body (full lips, nails adorned with red varnish, breasts). Yet underneath this frivolous appearance emerges a disturbance: moles transforming into ants, a heart profiled into a hawthorn… Far from the expected imagery of the flower-woman or of a sweet and conventional harmony with Mother Nature, her portraits are therefore those of the vanity of things, of the invasion (burial?) of the body by the living. A marvellous, sometimes nostalgic look at the body that ages, the bee that flies, the stem that grows, the flower that opens and fades…

 

Lise Morlon