PROFILES

Over 30 years we have followed some artists more closely than others – through taste, affinity, never unduly concerned with level of recognition or acceptability. Natacha Lesueur was born in Cannes in 1971 and has worked at both Villa Arson and the Villa Médicis in Rome. Presently out of the spotlight, the artist whom the art scene has always found so difficult to “pigeonhole” – photographer? mixed-media artist? – occupies a special place in our pantheon. In 2003 one of her startling images – ham for hair – stared out from the cover of our first Art issue, triggering surprise (repulsion in some cases), and considerable satisfaction on our part. Fourteen years later we catch up with her, now mum to twins Ernest and Gilda, in a café in Paris’s 20th arrondissement where she presently lives with her designer partner, albeit maintaining close personal and professional links with Nice. “Without beating about the bush, the years I spent at Villa Arson then as part of Nice’s artistic community (notably La Station but also with Ramette, Mayaux, Pinaud...) were inexpressibly formative for me,“ explains the photographer who for the last 15 years has taught in Lausanne and Rennes. Somewhat nostalgically she remembers that big “united, supportive, sharing family“ that very early in her career enabled her to make “determining encounters and life choices” unthinkable in Paris. And the South, which she “misses a lot, a lot”, hasn’t forgotten her either. After a solo exhibition at the Chagall Museum in 2014 then a double show at Eva Vautier’s gallery, last summer Lesueur (presently giving herself a year off to care for her children and get back to work in her new studio) participated in the Point Quartz/Flower of Kent group ceramic exhibition organised by Frédéric Bauchet at Villa Arson. There she showed the first iteration of a series of ceramics that she will confront with pictures in an exhibition to be held in Valencia (Spain) in September 2018.­­

Par Mireille Sartore

Photo Jean-Michel Sordello