Interview with Luce Pintore

LP - Of all the techniques you have used, how did you end up working with textiles? In your opinion, does this medium have intrinsic qualities?
CLT - Textiles, text, and tessitura share the same etymology. All are inscribed in space and invoke the senses.

LP - What inspires you?
CLT - Everything that I do not understand or know. I love discovering and marvelling at new things: languages, writing, techniques, territories, others…

LP - Your relationship to the cultures of other countries is very present in this exhibition. How do these cultural encounters feed your work?
CLT - Just as every day brings surprises, encounters, and discoveries, I feed on the unknown… Exploring other cultures and countries allows me to question my artistic practice and to gain new perspectives.

LP - Either with the weavers at Aubusson or the High Atlas of Morocco, how did you approach collaborative work and the letting go of control needed to allow your work to be interpreted by these artisans?
CLT - Collaborations like these imply a great degree of mutual trust. The interpretation of my models by the weavers is an essential condition guaranteeing the quality of the partnership. This act of delegating on both a technical and artistic level is fundamental. These collective productions generate exchange and dialogue.

LP - Most of your works are immersive and interactive: the visitor becomes an actor. What interests you about the visitor experience? For you, is it important to mobilize senses other than sight?
CLT - That’s true. The visitor is often invited to participate, to trigger, touch, come closer, lie down on the sculptures and/or in the installations during exhibitions. The works are presented as open invitations to the attention of users. The sculptures encourage touch, they maintain a close relationship with the space in which they are inscribed. Their sound dimension also appeals to our sense of hearing and offers an immersive experience.

LP - Your work on the different forms of non-verbal communication (birdsong, pictograms, etc.) or with inaudible sounds (whispers, telluric noises, etc.) always leaves room for the unknown. Not everything is revealed. What is your perspective on mystery or secrecy? Is this a way of allowing everyone to appropriate the work?
CLT - Non-verbal communication such as whistled or drummed languages, speaking instruments, as well as secret writing or scripts have inspired my research and artistic work for several years. The unspeakable, inaudible, and/or indecipherable enable me to look and listen to the world without necessarily having all the answers or explanations… The thought of all that we do not and cannot know is dizzying. The inexplicable aspect of mysteries or the unknown allows us to have another experience of things without uncovering their secrets. Therefore, everyone can appropriate and interpret the works, texts, and sounds as they so wish.