Irène Dacunha
Born in 1957.
Irène Dacunha has developed a pictorial practice that brings her gaze into resonance with prehistoric art. She states that she seeks to “encounter the Human of origins” by drawing on the manual gestures of line-making, a method explained in the documentary film devoted to her work. The method privileges the continuity of gestures—drawing by hand what one sees and feels—over mere archaeological reproduction.
The works presented in the exhibition äbri, äbrüf, produced in collaboration with Olivier Estoppey, originated in exploratory journeys to Palaeolithic sites, dolmens and menhirs, as well as to other architectures described as sacred. These travels also led to the collection of immaterial and sonic elements, including the flamenco songs cited in the dossier, which form part of the materials assembled and reassembled for the exhibition. Sketchbooks, prints, drawings and paintings make up an installation in which sketches and notes made over time serve as both a path through the exhibition and a formal framework for the hang.
Among the works are a painted leporello with a narrative character and a printed leporello reproducing texts in Upper Valais dialect, German and French.
A video accompanies these images and gives voice to narratives in Upper Valais dialect, read by the actress Franziska Truffer. The display also featured charcoal and wash portraits of villagers, as well as a panorama of the Saint Nicolas valley executed on canvas. The materials and processes employed sometimes refer to the conditions of the terrain: cast concrete, mounted paper, pebbles, bones and fire are cited among the means used.
The sketchbook appears as a recurring and primary source for many of the drawings exhibited.
Presentations of these works appear in particular on exhibition and gallery pages (Galerie HumuS), where copyright is indicated in the artist’s name. According to the documentary film, the work bears the poetic intention of “telling one world to another world”, a phrase that illuminates the tension between testimony and pictorial translation in the artist’s practice.