Ilanit Illouz
Black Pampa, The Sinkholes series, 2016–2021, 2021
Fossilized salt print, 4 . 2 in, unique piece.
© Ilanit Illouz. Courtesy Galerie Fontana.
Strate #05, The Sinkholes series, 2016–2021, 2020
Fossilized salt print, 8,2 . 11,5 in,unique piece.
© Ilanit Illouz. Courtesy Galerie Fontana.
Born in 1977 in Paris. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Presented by Emilia Genuardi
Les Dolines
Ilanit Illouz’s work on images is permeated by the question of narrative, always approached through the out of frame or the ellipse. Her work develops photographic and mechanical reproduction processes that are sometimes unprecedented, like many temporal operations. She relies on processes that respond to the repeated work of surveying, investigation and observation, which reveal as much as they erase, where memory is physically put to the test. Her works reflect on social, political and economic history, on traces and disappearance.
For a ppr oc he, Ilanit Illouz presents Les Dolines, a project based on long-term research into natural elements and proposing an experimental photographic study of a territory located in the Judean desert, between Jerusalem and Jericho, near the Dead Sea. The dramatic drying up of the lake has transformed the region into a lunar landscape, eaten away by salt. The salt is gathered from the desert floor and used by the artist in her studio to fossilize her prints and lend them a sculptural quality. It is both an image and structural component and makes the work glisten as well as setting it, recalling the living nature of this mineral material as well as its hieratic beauty, and suggests a landscape to be contemplated as well as an ecosystem under threat.
A 2005 graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, Ilanit Illouz recently exhibited at the Institut pour la Photographie de Lille and at the CRP/ Centre régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France. In 2018, she was one of the winners of the “Flux une société en mouvement” public commission by the CNAP. In 2021, she received the public vote for the Louis Roederer Discovery Prize at the Rencontres d’Arles.
Galerie Fontana
Established in 2011, Fontana Gallery initially focused on photography, but later embraced all mediums. Located on the Lauriergracht, one of Amsterdam’s many canals, Fontana is also a gallery on the move, occupying and sharing spaces in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Paris. Through temporary and pop-up exhibitions within the gallery, Fontana aims to merge various networks of contemporary art through exhibitions of both represented and guest artists.
Galerie Fontana, Lauriergracht 11 — 1016 RD Amsterdam, Netherlands
