As a center for urban art, Fluctuart takes you on a journey to meet the artists and better understand their creative process. Meet Madame.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your artistic practice?
My name is Aurelie-Ludivine, and I create collages under the pseudonym Madame. In my studio, I work with vintage materials and three-dimensional forms. I create small “damaged” objects—often interactive—that are like miniature cabinets of curiosities, blending vintage materials (photos, engravings, drawings, etc.) with short phrases open to multiple interpretations. I then translate this studio work into very large-scale street art in the form of posters.
What's your background, and how did you get into creating?
First of all, I studied theater for a long time, and in parallel with the masters I did between Paris, Poitiers and Rome, I trained as an actor with a small company near Tours, where I'm originally from.
Born into a family of artists, I was fascinated by the world of the arts from an early age, thanks to my grandfather who was a stage designer at the Tours theater and a painter (very classical). My parents always encouraged me to be creative, and drawing, sculpting and so on were part of my daily life as a child. When I returned to Paris, I quickly realized the limits of my drawing technique, and it's certainly because I was limited in my expression that I turned to collage.
One thing led to another, and I met a number of taggers I'd been following to take photos of them, and then one evening one of them discovered the little collages I'd been making for myself. He came up with the idea of printing them large and putting them up in the street. Without him, I'd never have made the connection between my studio work and the street.
In your day-to-day work as an artist, what inspires you? What triggers the creation of a work?
Everything inspires me! The smallest thing, my daily life, my friends, my family, my loves, current events of course, and my travels too, lots of them... Everything is really material.
The trigger will be a phrase running through my head that I'll want to explore, or an image I've spotted in my archives that I'll want to dust off. It's a dialogue between all these things.
Can you tell us how you go about creating your work? What are the different stages of creation?
As I said above, it can start with a phrase that runs through my head, or an image that strikes me. Then I'll feed this phrase with images, or this image with a phrase that it evokes, and so bring in new elements that will feed the meaning.
Once I've got all my elements, I scan them to make them available and then create the street piece. I assemble the piece in volume, and then with the scanned elements I create an alias for the street. Not a carbon copy, but something for the street that comes from the studio piece. It's a question of adapting the discourse to the audience for which it's intended. Once the studio piece and the street piece have been created, I move on to a new story... A new piece...
See the collage of Retour de soirée below.
Find the artist's books, art editions and goodies available at fluctushop.fr
As an urban art center, Fluctuart takes you to meet the artists in order to better understand her creative process. See you today with Madame.
Can you remind us who you are and your artistic practice?
My name is Aurelie-Ludivine, and I create collages under the pseudonym Madame. In my studio, I work with old materials and objects. I create small “damaged” and often interactive objects—a sort of miniature cabinet of curiosities where old materials (photos, engravings, drawings, etc.) and short phrases with multiple meanings are combined. I then adapt this studio work to a very large scale for the street, in the form of posters.
What is your background, how did you start creating?
I first studied theatre for a long time, and in parallel to the masters that I did between Paris, Poitiers and Rome, I trained as an actor in a small company next to Tours, where I come from.
Born from a family of artists, I was very early fascinated by the world of arts thanks to my grandfather who was a stage designer at the Tours theatre and a painter (very classical). I was always pushed by my parents to creativity, drawings, sculpture, etc. were part of my daily life as a child. Later, drawing followed me a lot during my peregrinations because I lived abroad a lot, then when I came back to Paris, I quickly understood the limits of my drawing technique, and it is certainly because I was limited in my expression that I went towards collage.
One thing led to another and I met some taggers that I was following at the time to take pictures of them, then one of them discovered one evening the small collages I was making for me. It was his idea to print this in large format and put it on the street. Without him I would never have made the link between my studio work and the street.
In your daily work as an artist, what inspires you? What is the trigger for the creation of a work?
Everything inspires me! Everything, my daily life, my friends, my family, my loves, the news of course and my travels too, a lot... Everything is really matter.
The triggering element will be a sentence that pops into my head and that I'll want to explore, or an image that I'll have spotted in my archives and that I'll want to dust off at that moment. It's a dialogue between all that.
Can you explain to us how you build a work? What are the different stages of creation?
As I told you above, it can start either from a sentence that pops into my head, or from an image that struck me. Then I'm going to feed this sentence with images or this image with a sentence that it will evoke to me, and thus bring new elements that will feed the meaning.
Once I have all my elements I scan them to have them available and then create the street play. I edit the piece in volume, and then with the scanned elements I create an alias for the street. Not a carbon copy, something for the street that comes from the studio room. It's about adapting the speech to the audience it's intended for. Once the studio piece and the street piece are completed, I move on to a new story... A new play...
Discover below the collage of the work Retour de soirée
Find Madame in the exhibition Veni, Vidi, Vinci.