ALICE PALLOT
FACTORY #9
Algues Maudites
Exhibition at the Chapelle des Cordeliers, from October 15 to November 27, 2022
In Brittany, toxic algae known as “cursed algae” have become the symbol of a deep evil that has its roots in the agricultural modernization laws of the 1960s. The presence of nitrates and phosphates in coastal waters (pollution due to intensive agriculture) contributes to the multiplication of seaweed. These algae become deadly when rotting toxic gas (H2S) is released. The multiplication of these algae creates dead zones that leave behind them morbid landscapes with a frozen appearance, as if out of time, when they are not picked up.
Through a sensitive documentary, Alice Pallot highlights the transformation of a landscape by the harmful actions of human beings on the environment, but also the imperceptible toxicity of algae (H2S gas) which persists today in a tense political climate. This series of photographs/videos taken in Brittany as well as at the CNRS in Toulouse strives to highlight the contrast between the idyllic appearance of the Breton coast and the real underlying toxicity of the algae that invade it, a consequence of the exploitation earth industry.
This work also questions the possibility of creating a space and a moment of rebirth through a balance “fauna, flora, soil” that has been broken.
The Wallonie-Bruxelles Centre | Paris
Director : Stéphanie Pécourt
Far from being a mausoleum that would contribute to the canonisation of the heritage of French-speaking Belgian culture, the Centre is a reference catalyst for contemporary Belgian creation and the artistic ecosystem in its transversality. Through a resolutely de-anctuarising and transdisciplinary programme, the Centre is mandated to disseminate and promote the work of artists based in he Walloon-Brussels Federation, with a view to optimising their exposure in France. It this ensures the promotion of emerging or confirmed talents, from the periphery to the delicated. It contributes to stimulating co-productions and international patnerships and to crystallising attention in favour of the Belgian scene.
The Centre unveils, by season, artistic approaches that attest to the irreducibility of the porous territories of Belgian contemporary creation to a common denominator. Located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, opposite the Centre Pompidou, its programming is spread over more than 1000 m². An offshore Belgian island, it also implements satellite programming outside the walls in conjunction with institutions, operators and prescribing events.
The Centre is a decentralized service of Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI): an instrument of the international policy conducted by Wallonia-Brussels federation and the French Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region.
Alice Pallot is a French photographer who lives and works in Brussels. In 2018, she graduated from the photography section of the National School of Visual Arts (ENSAV) in La Cambre and participated in the Erasmus program at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art of Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland. The same year, she won the Roger de Conynck prize for her series “L’Ile Himero”, also exhibited at the Voies Off festival in Arles.
In 2019, Alice Pallot self-publishes a book entitled “Land” which is part of the Belgian Photobook exhibition at the Fotomuseum in Antwerp, at the Bal in Paris and at the Wiels Art Book Fair in Brussels. Her “Oasis” series is exhibited at the 4th edition of the PhotoBrussels Festival 2019 at the Hangar Photo Art Center. “Oasis” is also presented in collaboration with the Satellite Gallery in Liège and in “In what world do we dream? », curated by the Xeno collective at Bozar in Brussels. Alice Pallot’s work is presented in several places in Brussels (Le Botanique, Galerie Summer 78, Adaventura, Galerie Vertigo, La Réserve and La Vallée). In France, she exhibits in Paris (Galerie Immix and Galerie N’Oblige) and in Dieppe (Festival Diep-Haven).
In 2020, she proposes with the Satellite Gallery a new exhibition of “L’Île Himero”, accompanied by a book published by Page Works at the Biennale de L’Image Possible in Liège. Winner of the PhotoBrussels Festival 05, Alice Pallot presents “Suillus, looking at the sun with closed eyelids”, an integral part of the exhibition “The World Within” at the Hangar Photo Art Center in 2021. In September 2021, she presents “Suillus” at Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam. In January 2022, “Suillus” is presented in Paris (La Caserne and at the Galerie Immix). Alice Pallot is published in Liberation, La Libre, Fisheye Magazine, Vice… In 2022, she presents two experimental exhibitions in Brussels with the De Anima collective, at Adaventura and at the Hangar Photo Art Center.