imma: Your first project in Japan was back in 1998, could you share what was the experience like when you visited Japan? Do you think your experience in Japan has influenced your work? Are there any specific techniques/technologies from Japan that you’re interested in?
XAVIER VEILHAN(XV): Back in 1998 I travelled to Japan for the first time, with my wife and my practically newborn son. It was a very intense experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. At the time we stayed at the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, drove around our bicycles and visited temples like tourists. But we also got to feel the everyday rhythm of the Japanese people during the summer. It was both quiet and intense.
The trip was also special to me in that I discovered the high quality of Japanese society and objects like the public services, the trains and their stations, but also the quality of the traditional handcraft. That combination of technology and tradition was for me a big shock and influence. Another thing that particularly marked me was the art of coloring. Colors in Japan seemed much more mellow, with a diversity of beige and bronze, for example, which I liked very much.
imma: We can see a lot of technological skills used in your artworks. You were a pioneer to start using computers more than 20 years ago. Could you share how the role of technology has evolved during these years in your art practice? Do you see any particular change in recent years with the accelerating growth of technology?
XV: I love technology indeed, but I’m not at all a computer nerd. It is funny by the way that often people think I can advise them on the matter, when I can hardly get my phone to function. But, yes, I am very interested in technique, for it is a way to relate to the environment. To activate technical things is to get in touch with the environment. In the time span of my own activity things have changed big time as well. My very first studio in Paris, for example, only had a fax machine. Our evolution in the last 30 years is incredible. And it is not about a good or bad evolution. To me, all change is intrinsically good, because it is new and everything new must be considered, respected.
imma: Your artwork involves three dimensional humans portraits, whose characteristics are obscured and the figure is transformed into a more abstract and universal being. At the same time, the portrait possesses an aura that allow us to identify it as a specific individual, leaving us with an uncanny feeling. What are your intentions behind such creative process?
XV: My approach to the human figure is very much about the way it exists in space and how you can feel its presence. It is very uncanny. There lies a big mystery for me in the intensity of the presence of a person in a room or in the public space. Through my work, I try to catch this essence and what makes that person both specific and generic. We all have lots in common, but also characteristics that are special to each of us. I try to capture this and go to the point where the image becomes so blurred or faded that you reach the limit between someone and something. It is an attempt to identify what is human and what is not.
imma: The boundary between the real and virtual is challenged recently in many aspects of our lives including art, finance, and science, what are your thoughts towards the state of identity as an individual?
XV: I believe that this question is a major issue for any artist working today. Yet I am still surprised that people are complaining about, for example, the world of video games, as if it were something that could be mixed up with reality. I don’t think we have any difficulty in identifying what is real and what is not.
As artists, we try to fit objects or situations into a real environment. The artist’s role to me is to find the right spot to include his or her own reality both in the real and in the virtual world. As I like to say, art exists as a cosa mentale: something from the mind. The goal is to make it real.
imma: Due to the increasing SNS usage, it seems like art has become more dynamic than before, as well as generating a wide variety of artistic practice. For instance, AR, VR, digital data and virtual art are now available for collection on NFT. Could you share your thoughts on it?
XV: Of course I keep an eye on all those new technologies and open fields in the world and specifically in the art world. NFT is very surprising, VR is very promising and the social networks are definitely an environment to be used by artists. But I’m also surprised to see how the intensity of the virtual world makes us value more any confrontation we have with real objects or situations. I don’t think the power of reality is fading. It is still a very strong experience to be inside an exhibition. The quality of the air, the quality of the relationship with the work or the people in the room, with the sound, none of these things are included today in the virtual experience.
imma: I totally understand. I’m very interested in the difference between the real and virtual. Thank you very much for such an interesting talk!
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