Anne-Cécile SURGA
At Tarascon, Anne-Cecile Surga learns classical art practices such as anatomy and composition, through the techniques of drawing, pastel, Indian ink and oil painting. Anne Cécile entered business school in 2006, while taking evening classes in clay sculpture at the Atelier Michel Fontenille in Dijon. In 2012 she leaves for New York to complete a Master's degree in Art History. In parallel, she follows courses in metal sculpture and flaying. In 2013 Anne-Cécile persues a residency at the Pablo Atchugarry Foundation in Uruguay, where she learns marble carving. In 2015 the artist opens her marble carving workshop in Ariège where she now lives and works.I explore the extent of the personal and the emotional, and how our contemporary society affects our way of living, of feeling as well as our way of developing the notion of self.
I am interested in the way in which humans continue to be faithful to themselves despite the daily violence that society forces us to face but also sometimes to commit towards others. My works can be understood as elaborations of emotional reactions to societal problems: indeed, I am not trying to denounce the underlying problem, but I aspire to highlight the feeling that this or that situation gives birth to us.
My work is concerned with representing feelings, especially the most fleeting and subtle, which arise from complex situations on which we have trouble putting words. I'm not trying to explain or understand the problem, but rather to examine how it makes us feel, and our approaches, solutions and limitations to this complexity. I position myself not in the representation of the problem, but in the strategies put in place to transcend it.
As a woman, my work reflects the particular challenges that I face in my private life, and I believe that this also illustrates and comments on the societal problems inherent in our time.
