French Artist: Ixia Venel
Written by:Cecilia Chan
我去看了您的个人网站，您的画作中经常会出现一些动物的形象，特别是imaginary melodies这一系列，请问这和画中人物有什么关联，这是一种对人物性格的暗示吗？
When I looked around your website I realised your paintings frequently had animals in them, especially in the serie ‘Imaginary melody’. In these paintings what is the relationship between the animals and the people; does this show their personality?
In my work, animals are a kind of totem: they accompany the people, protect them, and show their personality too. The fact they appear more or less abstractly or in a figurative way is always an aspect I play with to show different things. In the painting “Shanghai time’ for example, I wanted to express the past through the symbol of water; recurrent theme in traditional Chinese painting, with moving fish. I think it is important to keep in mind what has come before us. This makes this young woman turn towards modernity; symbolized by Pudong and the Oriental Pearl Tower with which she becomes one.
在我的作品中，动物代表了一种图腾：他们陪伴着人们，保护人们，同时也体现了他们自己的个性。事实上他们或多或少有些抽象，或者以象征性的手法来表现我对不同事物的理解。比方说在完成作品“上海时间”过程中，我想表达穿越的河流，我用游动的鱼来表达传统中国油画并呈现其主题，我觉得能记住在我们现在所面临的情景和意象是非常重要的，正如这位年轻的女士所体现出的时代感，在浦东和东方明珠的象征下她也融入到了其中。
您的画作中有很多亚洲面孔，请问亚洲面孔在您看来有什么特别之处？
In your work, there are a lot of Asian faces, for you what are the particularities of these kinds of faces.
In these types of faces, I like the softness of the features, which are very smooth, pure and delicate. They are like a bared soil on which I make new expressions grow, to show the personality of the subject, especially through the intensity of the gaze. I like the idea of going beyond appearances, and not to succumb to something too easy where the public does not have too much to think about. The artist has to do his part of the job, which involves taking the audience by the hand to the end of the path that he has decided to take for the time of the painting, or the series of paintings. It is always fascinating for me to listen to someone tell me about what they see in a painting, because there are sometimes perfectly unintentional elements; is this the fruit of my subconscious and that of the audience?
It is through cinema that I have been touched by the aesthetic quality of Asian faces, and how their expressions are shown. I strongly admire Tran Anh Hung, Zhang Yimou, Im Kwon-taek and Wong Kar-Wai. There is in this type of faces a subtle equilibrium between strength and softness that makes me want to tell a story myself.
I really became a painter the day I came across a photo of a Vietnamese lady of Bac Ha, that made me really want to do a portrait of her. I wanted to do this in order to express the emotions that had invaded me, looking at the beauty of her embroidered clothes, her proud posture and her honest gaze. From this day, this want has never ceased to exist and I re-interpret it from painting to painting.
在这些面孔中我发现了一些柔和的元素，平滑，纯净，精致。它们就像一块没有被开发过的土地不停的滋养并孕育着新的表达方式，尤其是通过强烈的凝视来表达人物主体的性格特征。我喜欢表象之外的东西，而不是因为公众中很少出现或者肯定的事物而屈就和破灭。这也是艺术家应该做的，亲自把观众带领到道路的最深处，让他们能在一幅作品或者一系列作品中花时间去了解。当听到别人说从作品里面看出了什么东西时是非常有趣的，因为会发现无意形成的东西，这是我潜意识作用的结果还是观众自己的？
我通过一些有东方审美文化的电影来了解是如何呈现他们的气质的。我非常喜欢陈英雄，张艺谋，林权泽和王家卫。在他们表现的东方面孔中有一种微妙的介于强烈与柔和的平衡感，甚至有时候我也会情不自禁的想要说一个故事。
我真正成为一个画家是在看见一张来自越南北河的一个女士的照片，我非常感动并非常想为她画一个肖像画，以表达侵入我心中强烈的情感，正如她美丽的充满刺绣的服装，她骄傲的姿态以及真诚深刻的眼神。从那天起，这种感觉从未停止过，而我通过不断的画画来重复对它的诠释。
我看到您的介绍中说到，您以前在大学期间学习的是文学，为什么在毕业后才开始投身到绘画中？绘画对于您来说是什么？是一份冲动与热爱、一种内心世界的宣泄？亦或是一种心情的调节剂？现在绘画在您的生活中占什么样的比重？
In your biography, I have read that you have studied literature. Why did you plunge yourself in a sense into painting right after getting your diploma? What is painting for you? Is it a love impulse, a catharsis of an interior state, or a catalyst to adjust your emotions? Now, what is the importance of painting in your life?
Being able to go to university is a unique opportunity. I choose literature evidently because it was an area which attracted me and which I wanted to learn more about. From a very young age I have started to write poetry and short stories. I could have also chosen cinema or photography, because I actually was interested in many different subjects! These university years have established my love for research and thinking; I have discovered opera, Chinese literature, Vietnamese cinema, and taking the time to open my mind to the outside. Visual arts were not that far off because it was the writing of scenarios for cartoon strips that became a job possibility after studying. However, I had no knowledge in terms of drawing, or for this type of narration, and I felt frustrated. In parallel, I also thought about my father, a professional painter who would someday not be and from which I needed to learn all the knowledge possible now. I asked him to teach me drawing and he accepted on the condition that I followed a complete training in this subject, up until painting and this in fact turned out to a true social vector for me; I had found my place in society, now I knew I would leave a positive mark of my time here. For the first time, at 24 years of age, I felt useful and genuinely linked with other.
Now, I consider myself as a musician; I interpret themes that are known universally, but by imprinting my own personality. We can identify the notes and melody but at the same time it feels like the first time we hear them. It is this relationship with time that obsesses me; the essence of the present and the simultaneousness of the past. What has proceeded has brought us to what we are today, with the future in your hands.
能去大学学习是一个很独特的机会。我选择文学是因为这是一个非常吸引我并且能让我学到很多东西的领域。在我很小的时候我就会写诗歌和短篇小说。我本来还可以选择电影或者摄影，事实上我对不同的东西非常感兴趣！这所大学为我建立了探索和思考的热情：我涉足了戏剧，中国文学，越南电影，而且花时间来让我的思想变的开阔并能够更好的了解外面的世界。视觉艺术离文学不是那么远因为它就像一个充满卡通剧情的剧本，并可以作为我毕业以后的职业。但是，从素描和绘画技巧描述这方面来说，我不是特别有经验，因此我觉得有些困扰。因而，我也想到了我的父亲，一个职业的画家，但是我觉得我也不可能能在他那学到所有的东西。我让他教我学习素描，他也给予了我很正式而完整的训练，直到我学习油画。实际上，这成为我日后一个真正的绘画基础及参考方向。我终于在社会中找到了自己的位置，现在我觉得我应该在自己的时代上抹上重重的一笔。第一次办展，是在我24岁的时候，我发现我所学的东西非常受用，并真正的和其他艺术家一起做了联展。
现在，我把自己当成一个音乐家：我阐释着熟人皆知的主题，但是却留下了我自己的烙印。我们能听出声音和旋律，但是同时也感觉到好像是第一次听到一样。这种与时间之间的关系让我着迷，现在的本质性与过去的同时性，所有这些创造出了我们的现在，以及你能把握的将来。
我知道您父亲也是一位画家，我看到您之前08年与父亲共同在中国广州举办过一次画展，请问时隔4年之后，您的这次展览较之前有什么不同之处？为什么这次选择独自展览？
I also know that your father was a famous painter and I saw that you have exhibited your works together in Guangzhou in 2008. Tell me after these 4 years, what is the difference between that exhibition and the current exhibition in the Pont des Arts in Shanghai? Why have you now decided to exhibit your work alone?
These two exhibitions are in fact hard to compare. Concerning the one in Guangzhou, the contact was established through the internet, and I had at that time spoken to the gallery owner about my father’s work. He had then taken the opportunity to be able to present two artists, the father and daughter. I was only a professional painter since about two years, and I was happy to take my turn to be able to invite my father to exhibit with me for the first time in China. He had introduced me a couple of times in Europe with professionals which had allowed me to start my career on a well established route. Only our paintings had travelled to Guangzhou.
For this exhibition in Shanghai, it was the results of a real encounter in Paris with Pascale, the gallery director. She asked me to do the inauguration of her new gallery Le Ponts des Arts. It was for me the chance to fly with my own wings in a country that really inspires me, in a city that has always been part of my dreams. I am a fan of art deco and the artistic and cultural expression in between the two world wars. I was able to confront my European painter’s outlook with a Chinese public’s outlook, This was really a very interesting experience, and a very enriching moment of sharing.
事实上这两个展很难做比较。广州那个展是在网络上进行联络和交涉的，我跟画廊的老板提到过我父亲的作品，于是他觉得可以有机会做两个人的展，父亲和女儿的。那时候我作为一个专业的画家不过才两年，我非常高兴能在我的带动下邀请我父亲和我一起第一次到中国做展。之前总是我的父亲在欧洲业内多次推荐我，并为我的艺术生涯铺平了道路，那次广州展只是我们的作品一同到了广州而已。
在上海的展，是因为在巴黎认识了画廊总监帕斯卡，她邀请我来上海参加她的新画廊艺术桥画廊的开幕典礼。对我来说能单独飞到一个国家，在一个自己梦想的城市里做展是一个很好的机会，令我非常振奋。我也非常喜欢介于两次世界大战之中的装饰艺术，和富有艺术性的文化交流，我能以外国人的眼光看待中国的面貌，这是非常有趣的体验，而且非常丰富值得分享。
您之前的很多展览都在巴黎，请问您是在巴黎长大的吗？
Most of your previous exhibitions have been in Paris. Have you grown up there?
I did grow up in Paris until age 9, at which point I spent a couple of years in the south of France, then the north. I then came back to Paris at age 15 and I have lived there since.
我是在巴黎长大直到9岁，我去了法国南方，然后又去了北方，后来15岁的时候回到巴黎就一直生活到现在。
我知道您父亲是博纳尔和维亚尔的学生，也和爱德华马卡沃伊共同合作过，那么想必您从小的生长环境一定很与众不同，请问您的童年时光记忆最深刻的是什么？您觉得您父亲对你有那些影响？
I know that your father was the students and collaborator of Mac Avoy, who was himself a student of Vuillard and Bonnard. You childhood was then probably very different from other children’s. What has been your most lasting visual memory? How do you think has your father’s work influenced you?
There were two significant memories. When I was a child, my father had painted a very big canvas representing a nude, in a pink and blue ambiance that he really liked at the time. It had been already promised to a Japanese client and I remember very well trying to pressure my parents so the painting would not go. I was quite possessive with my father’s work. When I really liked a painting, it was hard for me to accept its departure. Maybe that is why now I already work to cut the umbilical cord while painting, thinking about the people who will live with the painting in order to attenuate the pain of separation.
As a teenager, I also met Mac Avoy, a short time before he passed away. He was an important figure, who greatly marked the arts, one the last set of artists with a big A. That day, I had the impression of living a historic moment, even if everything happened very simply. It was the visit of a master to his student and friend.
What my father learnt from Mac Avoy, he taught me himself, as well as everything he had learnt himself; the discipline of work, the respect to the models and the audience, the mastering of the techniques at the service of emotions.
我有过两个非常深刻的印象，一个是我很小的时候看见父亲画了一幅很大的裸体油画，粉红色和蓝色的调子，是他那时候经常用的。但是那副作品已经被一个日本客人订下了，我记得非常清楚的是我给我父母施加压力，因为不想把这幅作品卖出去。 我觉得那时我对我父亲的作品有着非常强的占有欲，一旦我喜欢上一幅作品，我就不愿意它被拿走。也许这也是为什么我开始在我画画时学会剪掉那种难舍的情感，而是更多的想到和这些画在一起生活的人们，以此来减少我对作品分离的痛苦。
另外一个就是在我年少的时候，我遇见了马克·埃沃耶，在他临终前的短暂片刻里。他是非常有名的人物，曾经在艺术上有着不凡的贡献，是最后一批最牛艺术家之一。
那天，我仿佛觉得自己活在历史中，尽管一切都非常简单。这是一次大师与他的学生和朋友的会面。
我的父亲教会了我他从马克·埃沃耶那学到的所有东西，也包括他自己的东西，比如作品的规则，对模特和观众的尊敬，以及娴熟的绘画技巧和精湛的表现手法。
有部分女性画家，更关注于自身，比如Frida Kahlo，大部分都是自画像，为什么您倾向于描绘各种各样的女性形象？
Certain artists also give a certain attention to their own representation. For example Frida Kahlo used to paint very many auto portraits. Why do you usually only paint portraits of different women?
For me I do not have the necessity or want to paint auto portraits. Sometimes, people say my characters look like me. I was very marked by the birth of my sister when I was 6 years old, and by the features of her face. It is probably this that haunts my work, and since we look alike…Our maternal slave background also participates to this Eurasian style in my characters. The women that I paint are in a sense like sisters from different countries, which I make, have different adventures. I like to show the beauty and pride of women, it is a type of feminism. My art is without borders, fraternal, and rich through its cultural differences.
我觉得没有必要也不想去画那些自画像。有时候大家说我画的人物跟我自己很像。在我6岁的时候我就能为我刚出生的妹妹画画像了，这很有可能出现在我的作品中，况且我们俩还长的有点像。我们母亲的背景关系也在我的作品里扮演着欧亚混血的风格。那些我画的女性从一定程度上反应了来自不同国家的姐妹，正如我画的有不同的新奇和冒险精神。我喜欢呈现女性的美与骄傲，是一种女权主义的象征。我的作品没有国界，是博爱的，并通过不同的文化体现出深厚的内涵和韵味。
从你的画风中可以看出受到了立体主义的影响，尤其在画面的背景中，但是为何主体人物却用了较为具像的绘画方式？
Through your work, we can see that you are attached to cubism, especially through the backgrounds. On the contrary, why are the characters treated in a more realistic way?
I have never tried to reproduce but to express what I felt. My style is not the results of a thought through process, things just happened to be. I have never tried to imitate the style of another artist, but only to represent what I thought was beautiful around me; in photography, in design, in fashion. My style reflects my creative process; the details of embroidery, the movement of a fold, the entanglement of metals, a relationship to colour, all these things perceived by my eyes guide my hand to my reality. My painting is me as a person: with my feet on the ground, with a Cartesian personality, but with my heart toward the stars, trying to perceive other parallel realities, to sense other immaterial vibes, and to travel between dreams and reality.
我从来没有想过要去复制，只是想画我自己的感受。我的风格不是那种在绘画过程中有一个想法并贯穿始终的，而是自然发生的。我从来也没有去模仿任何一个艺术家，而只是想呈现我身边美的事物，在摄影中，在设计中，在时装中。我的风格体现了创意的思维过程。比如刺绣的细节处，折叠的运动，金属的错乱纠缠，一种颜色的关系，所有的一切都通过我的眼睛来察觉，然后用我的手将其实现。我的作品就是我，是一个人：用我的双脚触地，有笛卡尔的个性，但是用我的心对着星星，试图去感知另外平行的关系，感受其它非物质的颤音，并在幻想与现实的世界里畅游。
我观察到您大部分作品都是油画，为什么选择油画作为表现形式，你有尝试过其他艺术表现形式吗？
You always work with oil painting, why have you chosen this technique and have you tried others?
It is oil painting that chose me! During my training, I obviously learnt other techniques (water colour, pastel, gouache, and ink) but it was the day that I touched oil for the first time that magic happened. The contact with the material, the sensation of the brush on the canvas, this simultaneously tender and rigid support, the techniques that were linked to it… All these things showed me that I had found the technique I was comfortable with and with which I still continue to learn.
是油画选择了我！在我学习的时候，我也学过其它的表现形式（水彩画，蜡笔画，水粉画，水墨画），但是当我第一次触摸到油画的时候，奇妙的事情发生了。与颜料的接触，对画笔在油画布上的触感，顿时变得柔软而具有可塑性，所以的绘画技法都能运用自然……所有这些让我知道我找到了一种可以让我发挥自如的表现方式，并且会持续学习下去。
您对于绘画风格的理解是怎样的？从您开始尝试绘画开始到现在，画风上有过什么样的变化？
What is your understanding of painting styles? From your beginnings till now. what has been the evolution of your style?
My perception of painting has enormously changed as I have become a painter. Before, I was closed to the work of certain famous artists and kept onto my personal favorites without trying to look elsewhere. I loved symbolism (Moreau, Klimt) and impressionism (Monet, Morisot, Bonnard). After some time, I realized I was staying on quite a smooth area. By studying myself light, colours, and composition, another world opened itself to me, that of Gauguin, Spilliaert, Schiele, Picasso, Lhote, Lempicka.
This has to do with my personal construction, and how your tastes evolve as you grow up, the sensations you are trying to find, and what nourishes you intellectually and emotionally. Professionally, my style has always been quite clear from the start; an equilibrium between realism, and abstraction, an expression of a dream like reality. After a while, the compositions have become more affirmed, the search for a new harmony of colours, and subjects has allowed me to add new cords onto my arch, but I think this arch has been the same from the start.
自从我成为一个画家，我对绘画的理解有了很大的变化。之前我可能和某一位艺术家的作品有些相近，在保持着自己最喜欢的风格时并没有做太多的探索和突破。我喜欢象征主义（莫洛，克利姆）和印象主义（莫奈，莫里索，波纳尔）一段时间后，我发现我仍然停留在一个非常平面的世界里。后来经由学习了光影，色彩，构图，另一个世界向我展开，他们是高更，施皮利亚特，席勒，毕加索，洛特，兰姆皮库奇。
这是关于我的自我结构，会随着你的年龄的增长会有不同的欣赏，你试图去寻找的感觉，会给你不断的智力上或情感上的滋养。专业点说，我的风格是在现实与抽象的初源所形成的清晰的平衡感，一种如现实般的梦境。然后这些构图变得更确切并试图寻找和谐的色彩，而所处的对象也会让我留下新的踪迹，但是我觉得这是和一开始就完全一样的。
您在世界各地都举办过画展，您认为中国的艺术氛围与各地有什么不同？是否有意再在中国举办展览？
You have exhibited in many different places around the world, what is the artistique atmosphere like in China? Is it interesting to exhibit in China?
Without a doubt, there is an energy in China that is very motivating. I like this dynamic that goes forth, in parallel with this history and traditions that is so rich and so inspiring. In China, everyday ideas blooms and are created, it ‘s fantastic.
毫无疑问，中国有很大的能量，而且非常有动力。我希望这样的活力能持续下去，与之相配的历史和传统文化会让其表现的非常丰富和激动人心。在中国，每天都有新的灵感产生并创造，太神奇了！
您对上海的印象怎样？
What are your impressions of Shanghai?
I have really felt at the doors of China; inhabitants from many different provinces come to Shanghai and contribute to the dynamic I was talking about before. At the same time, it makes you want to go explore these other provinces yourself, it’s like an enormous exchange platform. The atmosphere is so bubbly in the streets; it makes you want to take part in the commotion. But I have to say it was also a real pleasure to share moments of calm in gardens on Sunday, or in museums, and to walk around these families that have come to rest, to relax, in friendliness and simplicity.
我真的觉得我只是刚刚踏入了中国的大门，就像我之前和那些从其它不同的省份到上海工作的人说过的那样。同时我也觉得，它也让你很想去其它省份发现一些新的东西，这就像一个巨大的交换平台。氛围是如此的浓烈，以至于大街小巷都能感觉到，它让你觉得很想投身到这股洪流中。但是我还是得说，我真正喜欢的是在周日的花园里享受平静，或者在博物馆里，和家人们一起分享欢乐和纯净世界里的休息和放松。
我去看了您的个人网站，您的画作中经常会出现一些动物的形象，特别是imaginary melodies这一系列，请问这和画中人物有什么关联，这是一种对人物性格的暗示吗？
When I looked around your website I realised your paintings frequently had animals in them, especially in the serie ‘Imaginary melody’. In these paintings what is the relationship between the animals and the people; does this show their personality?
In my work, animals are a kind of totem: they accompany the people, protect them, and show their personality too. The fact they appear more or less abstractly or in a figurative way is always an aspect I play with to show different things. In the painting “Shanghai time’ for example, I wanted to express the past through the symbol of water; recurrent theme in traditional Chinese painting, with moving fish. I think it is important to keep in mind what has come before us. This makes this young woman turn towards modernity; symbolized by Pudong and the Oriental Pearl Tower with which she becomes one.
在我的作品中，动物代表了一种图腾：他们陪伴着人们，保护人们，同时也体现了他们自己的个性。事实上他们或多或少有些抽象，或者以象征性的手法来表现我对不同事物的理解。比方说在完成作品“上海时间”过程中，我想表达穿越的河流，我用游动的鱼来表达传统中国油画并呈现其主题，我觉得能记住在我们现在所面临的情景和意象是非常重要的，正如这位年轻的女士所体现出的时代感，在浦东和东方明珠的象征下她也融入到了其中。
您的画作中有很多亚洲面孔，请问亚洲面孔在您看来有什么特别之处？
In your work, there are a lot of Asian faces, for you what are the particularities of these kinds of faces.
In these types of faces, I like the softness of the features, which are very smooth, pure and delicate. They are like a bared soil on which I make new expressions grow, to show the personality of the subject, especially through the intensity of the gaze. I like the idea of going beyond appearances, and not to succumb to something too easy where the public does not have too much to think about. The artist has to do his part of the job, which involves taking the audience by the hand to the end of the path that he has decided to take for the time of the painting, or the series of paintings. It is always fascinating for me to listen to someone tell me about what they see in a painting, because there are sometimes perfectly unintentional elements; is this the fruit of my subconscious and that of the audience?
It is through cinema that I have been touched by the aesthetic quality of Asian faces, and how their expressions are shown. I strongly admire Tran Anh Hung, Zhang Yimou, Im Kwon-taek and Wong Kar-Wai. There is in this type of faces a subtle equilibrium between strength and softness that makes me want to tell a story myself.
I really became a painter the day I came across a photo of a Vietnamese lady of Bac Ha, that made me really want to do a portrait of her. I wanted to do this in order to express the emotions that had invaded me, looking at the beauty of her embroidered clothes, her proud posture and her honest gaze. From this day, this want has never ceased to exist and I re-interpret it from painting to painting.
在这些面孔中我发现了一些柔和的元素，平滑，纯净，精致。它们就像一块没有被开发过的土地不停的滋养并孕育着新的表达方式，尤其是通过强烈的凝视来表达人物主体的性格特征。我喜欢表象之外的东西，而不是因为公众中很少出现或者肯定的事物而屈就和破灭。这也是艺术家应该做的，亲自把观众带领到道路的最深处，让他们能在一幅作品或者一系列作品中花时间去了解。当听到别人说从作品里面看出了什么东西时是非常有趣的，因为会发现无意形成的东西，这是我潜意识作用的结果还是观众自己的？
我通过一些有东方审美文化的电影来了解是如何呈现他们的气质的。我非常喜欢陈英雄，张艺谋，林权泽和王家卫。在他们表现的东方面孔中有一种微妙的介于强烈与柔和的平衡感，甚至有时候我也会情不自禁的想要说一个故事。
我真正成为一个画家是在看见一张来自越南北河的一个女士的照片，我非常感动并非常想为她画一个肖像画，以表达侵入我心中强烈的情感，正如她美丽的充满刺绣的服装，她骄傲的姿态以及真诚深刻的眼神。从那天起，这种感觉从未停止过，而我通过不断的画画来重复对它的诠释。
我看到您的介绍中说到，您以前在大学期间学习的是文学，为什么在毕业后才开始投身到绘画中？绘画对于您来说是什么？是一份冲动与热爱、一种内心世界的宣泄？亦或是一种心情的调节剂？现在绘画在您的生活中占什么样的比重？
In your biography, I have read that you have studied literature. Why did you plunge yourself in a sense into painting right after getting your diploma? What is painting for you? Is it a love impulse, a catharsis of an interior state, or a catalyst to adjust your emotions? Now, what is the importance of painting in your life?
Being able to go to university is a unique opportunity. I choose literature evidently because it was an area which attracted me and which I wanted to learn more about. From a very young age I have started to write poetry and short stories. I could have also chosen cinema or photography, because I actually was interested in many different subjects! These university years have established my love for research and thinking; I have discovered opera, Chinese literature, Vietnamese cinema, and taking the time to open my mind to the outside. Visual arts were not that far off because it was the writing of scenarios for cartoon strips that became a job possibility after studying. However, I had no knowledge in terms of drawing, or for this type of narration, and I felt frustrated. In parallel, I also thought about my father, a professional painter who would someday not be and from which I needed to learn all the knowledge possible now. I asked him to teach me drawing and he accepted on the condition that I followed a complete training in this subject, up until painting and this in fact turned out to a true social vector for me; I had found my place in society, now I knew I would leave a positive mark of my time here. For the first time, at 24 years of age, I felt useful and genuinely linked with other.
Now, I consider myself as a musician; I interpret themes that are known universally, but by imprinting my own personality. We can identify the notes and melody but at the same time it feels like the first time we hear them. It is this relationship with time that obsesses me; the essence of the present and the simultaneousness of the past. What has proceeded has brought us to what we are today, with the future in your hands.
能去大学学习是一个很独特的机会。我选择文学是因为这是一个非常吸引我并且能让我学到很多东西的领域。在我很小的时候我就会写诗歌和短篇小说。我本来还可以选择电影或者摄影，事实上我对不同的东西非常感兴趣！这所大学为我建立了探索和思考的热情：我涉足了戏剧，中国文学，越南电影，而且花时间来让我的思想变的开阔并能够更好的了解外面的世界。视觉艺术离文学不是那么远因为它就像一个充满卡通剧情的剧本，并可以作为我毕业以后的职业。但是，从素描和绘画技巧描述这方面来说，我不是特别有经验，因此我觉得有些困扰。因而，我也想到了我的父亲，一个职业的画家，但是我觉得我也不可能能在他那学到所有的东西。我让他教我学习素描，他也给予了我很正式而完整的训练，直到我学习油画。实际上，这成为我日后一个真正的绘画基础及参考方向。我终于在社会中找到了自己的位置，现在我觉得我应该在自己的时代上抹上重重的一笔。第一次办展，是在我24岁的时候，我发现我所学的东西非常受用，并真正的和其他艺术家一起做了联展。
现在，我把自己当成一个音乐家：我阐释着熟人皆知的主题，但是却留下了我自己的烙印。我们能听出声音和旋律，但是同时也感觉到好像是第一次听到一样。这种与时间之间的关系让我着迷，现在的本质性与过去的同时性，所有这些创造出了我们的现在，以及你能把握的将来。
我知道您父亲也是一位画家，我看到您之前08年与父亲共同在中国广州举办过一次画展，请问时隔4年之后，您的这次展览较之前有什么不同之处？为什么这次选择独自展览？
I also know that your father was a famous painter and I saw that you have exhibited your works together in Guangzhou in 2008. Tell me after these 4 years, what is the difference between that exhibition and the current exhibition in the Pont des Arts in Shanghai? Why have you now decided to exhibit your work alone?
These two exhibitions are in fact hard to compare. Concerning the one in Guangzhou, the contact was established through the internet, and I had at that time spoken to the gallery owner about my father’s work. He had then taken the opportunity to be able to present two artists, the father and daughter. I was only a professional painter since about two years, and I was happy to take my turn to be able to invite my father to exhibit with me for the first time in China. He had introduced me a couple of times in Europe with professionals which had allowed me to start my career on a well established route. Only our paintings had travelled to Guangzhou.
For this exhibition in Shanghai, it was the results of a real encounter in Paris with Pascale, the gallery director. She asked me to do the inauguration of her new gallery Le Ponts des Arts. It was for me the chance to fly with my own wings in a country that really inspires me, in a city that has always been part of my dreams. I am a fan of art deco and the artistic and cultural expression in between the two world wars. I was able to confront my European painter’s outlook with a Chinese public’s outlook, This was really a very interesting experience, and a very enriching moment of sharing.
事实上这两个展很难做比较。广州那个展是在网络上进行联络和交涉的，我跟画廊的老板提到过我父亲的作品，于是他觉得可以有机会做两个人的展，父亲和女儿的。那时候我作为一个专业的画家不过才两年，我非常高兴能在我的带动下邀请我父亲和我一起第一次到中国做展。之前总是我的父亲在欧洲业内多次推荐我，并为我的艺术生涯铺平了道路，那次广州展只是我们的作品一同到了广州而已。
在上海的展，是因为在巴黎认识了画廊总监帕斯卡，她邀请我来上海参加她的新画廊艺术桥画廊的开幕典礼。对我来说能单独飞到一个国家，在一个自己梦想的城市里做展是一个很好的机会，令我非常振奋。我也非常喜欢介于两次世界大战之中的装饰艺术，和富有艺术性的文化交流，我能以外国人的眼光看待中国的面貌，这是非常有趣的体验，而且非常丰富值得分享。
您之前的很多展览都在巴黎，请问您是在巴黎长大的吗？
Most of your previous exhibitions have been in Paris. Have you grown up there?
I did grow up in Paris until age 9, at which point I spent a couple of years in the south of France, then the north. I then came back to Paris at age 15 and I have lived there since.
我是在巴黎长大直到9岁，我去了法国南方，然后又去了北方，后来15岁的时候回到巴黎就一直生活到现在。
我知道您父亲是博纳尔和维亚尔的学生，也和爱德华马卡沃伊共同合作过，那么想必您从小的生长环境一定很与众不同，请问您的童年时光记忆最深刻的是什么？您觉得您父亲对你有那些影响？
I know that your father was the students and collaborator of Mac Avoy, who was himself a student of Vuillard and Bonnard. You childhood was then probably very different from other children’s. What has been your most lasting visual memory? How do you think has your father’s work influenced you?
There were two significant memories. When I was a child, my father had painted a very big canvas representing a nude, in a pink and blue ambiance that he really liked at the time. It had been already promised to a Japanese client and I remember very well trying to pressure my parents so the painting would not go. I was quite possessive with my father’s work. When I really liked a painting, it was hard for me to accept its departure. Maybe that is why now I already work to cut the umbilical cord while painting, thinking about the people who will live with the painting in order to attenuate the pain of separation.
As a teenager, I also met Mac Avoy, a short time before he passed away. He was an important figure, who greatly marked the arts, one the last set of artists with a big A. That day, I had the impression of living a historic moment, even if everything happened very simply. It was the visit of a master to his student and friend.
What my father learnt from Mac Avoy, he taught me himself, as well as everything he had learnt himself; the discipline of work, the respect to the models and the audience, the mastering of the techniques at the service of emotions.
我有过两个非常深刻的印象，一个是我很小的时候看见父亲画了一幅很大的裸体油画，粉红色和蓝色的调子，是他那时候经常用的。但是那副作品已经被一个日本客人订下了，我记得非常清楚的是我给我父母施加压力，因为不想把这幅作品卖出去。 我觉得那时我对我父亲的作品有着非常强的占有欲，一旦我喜欢上一幅作品，我就不愿意它被拿走。也许这也是为什么我开始在我画画时学会剪掉那种难舍的情感，而是更多的想到和这些画在一起生活的人们，以此来减少我对作品分离的痛苦。
另外一个就是在我年少的时候，我遇见了马克·埃沃耶，在他临终前的短暂片刻里。他是非常有名的人物，曾经在艺术上有着不凡的贡献，是最后一批最牛艺术家之一。
那天，我仿佛觉得自己活在历史中，尽管一切都非常简单。这是一次大师与他的学生和朋友的会面。
我的父亲教会了我他从马克·埃沃耶那学到的所有东西，也包括他自己的东西，比如作品的规则，对模特和观众的尊敬，以及娴熟的绘画技巧和精湛的表现手法。
有部分女性画家，更关注于自身，比如Frida Kahlo，大部分都是自画像，为什么您倾向于描绘各种各样的女性形象？
Certain artists also give a certain attention to their own representation. For example Frida Kahlo used to paint very many auto portraits. Why do you usually only paint portraits of different women?
For me I do not have the necessity or want to paint auto portraits. Sometimes, people say my characters look like me. I was very marked by the birth of my sister when I was 6 years old, and by the features of her face. It is probably this that haunts my work, and since we look alike…Our maternal slave background also participates to this Eurasian style in my characters. The women that I paint are in a sense like sisters from different countries, which I make, have different adventures. I like to show the beauty and pride of women, it is a type of feminism. My art is without borders, fraternal, and rich through its cultural differences.
我觉得没有必要也不想去画那些自画像。有时候大家说我画的人物跟我自己很像。在我6岁的时候我就能为我刚出生的妹妹画画像了，这很有可能出现在我的作品中，况且我们俩还长的有点像。我们母亲的背景关系也在我的作品里扮演着欧亚混血的风格。那些我画的女性从一定程度上反应了来自不同国家的姐妹，正如我画的有不同的新奇和冒险精神。我喜欢呈现女性的美与骄傲，是一种女权主义的象征。我的作品没有国界，是博爱的，并通过不同的文化体现出深厚的内涵和韵味。
从你的画风中可以看出受到了立体主义的影响，尤其在画面的背景中，但是为何主体人物却用了较为具像的绘画方式？
Through your work, we can see that you are attached to cubism, especially through the backgrounds. On the contrary, why are the characters treated in a more realistic way?
I have never tried to reproduce but to express what I felt. My style is not the results of a thought through process, things just happened to be. I have never tried to imitate the style of another artist, but only to represent what I thought was beautiful around me; in photography, in design, in fashion. My style reflects my creative process; the details of embroidery, the movement of a fold, the entanglement of metals, a relationship to colour, all these things perceived by my eyes guide my hand to my reality. My painting is me as a person: with my feet on the ground, with a Cartesian personality, but with my heart toward the stars, trying to perceive other parallel realities, to sense other immaterial vibes, and to travel between dreams and reality.
我从来没有想过要去复制，只是想画我自己的感受。我的风格不是那种在绘画过程中有一个想法并贯穿始终的，而是自然发生的。我从来也没有去模仿任何一个艺术家，而只是想呈现我身边美的事物，在摄影中，在设计中，在时装中。我的风格体现了创意的思维过程。比如刺绣的细节处，折叠的运动，金属的错乱纠缠，一种颜色的关系，所有的一切都通过我的眼睛来察觉，然后用我的手将其实现。我的作品就是我，是一个人：用我的双脚触地，有笛卡尔的个性，但是用我的心对着星星，试图去感知另外平行的关系，感受其它非物质的颤音，并在幻想与现实的世界里畅游。
我观察到您大部分作品都是油画，为什么选择油画作为表现形式，你有尝试过其他艺术表现形式吗？
You always work with oil painting, why have you chosen this technique and have you tried others?
It is oil painting that chose me! During my training, I obviously learnt other techniques (water colour, pastel, gouache, and ink) but it was the day that I touched oil for the first time that magic happened. The contact with the material, the sensation of the brush on the canvas, this simultaneously tender and rigid support, the techniques that were linked to it… All these things showed me that I had found the technique I was comfortable with and with which I still continue to learn.
是油画选择了我！在我学习的时候，我也学过其它的表现形式（水彩画，蜡笔画，水粉画，水墨画），但是当我第一次触摸到油画的时候，奇妙的事情发生了。与颜料的接触，对画笔在油画布上的触感，顿时变得柔软而具有可塑性，所以的绘画技法都能运用自然……所有这些让我知道我找到了一种可以让我发挥自如的表现方式，并且会持续学习下去。
您对于绘画风格的理解是怎样的？从您开始尝试绘画开始到现在，画风上有过什么样的变化？
What is your understanding of painting styles? From your beginnings till now. what has been the evolution of your style?
My perception of painting has enormously changed as I have become a painter. Before, I was closed to the work of certain famous artists and kept onto my personal favorites without trying to look elsewhere. I loved symbolism (Moreau, Klimt) and impressionism (Monet, Morisot, Bonnard). After some time, I realized I was staying on quite a smooth area. By studying myself light, colours, and composition, another world opened itself to me, that of Gauguin, Spilliaert, Schiele, Picasso, Lhote, Lempicka.
This has to do with my personal construction, and how your tastes evolve as you grow up, the sensations you are trying to find, and what nourishes you intellectually and emotionally. Professionally, my style has always been quite clear from the start; an equilibrium between realism, and abstraction, an expression of a dream like reality. After a while, the compositions have become more affirmed, the search for a new harmony of colours, and subjects has allowed me to add new cords onto my arch, but I think this arch has been the same from the start.
自从我成为一个画家，我对绘画的理解有了很大的变化。之前我可能和某一位艺术家的作品有些相近，在保持着自己最喜欢的风格时并没有做太多的探索和突破。我喜欢象征主义（莫洛，克利姆）和印象主义（莫奈，莫里索，波纳尔）一段时间后，我发现我仍然停留在一个非常平面的世界里。后来经由学习了光影，色彩，构图，另一个世界向我展开，他们是高更，施皮利亚特，席勒，毕加索，洛特，兰姆皮库奇。
这是关于我的自我结构，会随着你的年龄的增长会有不同的欣赏，你试图去寻找的感觉，会给你不断的智力上或情感上的滋养。专业点说，我的风格是在现实与抽象的初源所形成的清晰的平衡感，一种如现实般的梦境。然后这些构图变得更确切并试图寻找和谐的色彩，而所处的对象也会让我留下新的踪迹，但是我觉得这是和一开始就完全一样的。
您在世界各地都举办过画展，您认为中国的艺术氛围与各地有什么不同？是否有意再在中国举办展览？
You have exhibited in many different places around the world, what is the artistique atmosphere like in China? Is it interesting to exhibit in China?
Without a doubt, there is an energy in China that is very motivating. I like this dynamic that goes forth, in parallel with this history and traditions that is so rich and so inspiring. In China, everyday ideas blooms and are created, it ‘s fantastic.
毫无疑问，中国有很大的能量，而且非常有动力。我希望这样的活力能持续下去，与之相配的历史和传统文化会让其表现的非常丰富和激动人心。在中国，每天都有新的灵感产生并创造，太神奇了！
您对上海的印象怎样？
What are your impressions of Shanghai?
I have really felt at the doors of China; inhabitants from many different provinces come to Shanghai and contribute to the dynamic I was talking about before. At the same time, it makes you want to go explore these other provinces yourself, it’s like an enormous exchange platform. The atmosphere is so bubbly in the streets; it makes you want to take part in the commotion. But I have to say it was also a real pleasure to share moments of calm in gardens on Sunday, or in museums, and to walk around these families that have come to rest, to relax, in friendliness and simplicity.
我真的觉得我只是刚刚踏入了中国的大门，就像我之前和那些从其它不同的省份到上海工作的人说过的那样。同时我也觉得，它也让你很想去其它省份发现一些新的东西，这就像一个巨大的交换平台。氛围是如此的浓烈，以至于大街小巷都能感觉到，它让你觉得很想投身到这股洪流中。但是我还是得说，我真正喜欢的是在周日的花园里享受平静，或者在博物馆里，和家人们一起分享欢乐和纯净世界里的休息和放松。
