CORENTINE LE MESTRE

MISSING EDGE

A residency project at Casa Planas, in which the artist will concentrate upon the search for “the trans-periphery”, considered as a concept which may be applicable to images. In photography, this term might convey the idea of a transcending and transcendent image, implying that there is a centre to the image, a territorial integration and interconnection.

During her residency, Corentine sought to confront the margins and return to the centre. She started out from Casa Planas, the physical location of the Planas Archive and of the study of the photographic image, as the central location of her research, and from there, she explored the effects of these images in the real environment. She studied the plants which appear on the edges of postcards in the archive’s collection as a central theme. In this way, during her residency, she adopted a dual approach to a critical reflection upon the trade in photographic imagery and in plants, both synonyms for globalised circulation, analysing the construction of identity based upon the study of plants and how they are represented within the framework of the tourist industry.

During her stay at Casa Planas, Corentine participated in two events.

- On September 10th, 2020, the two artists in residence at Casa Planas at that time, Txema González and Corentine Le Mestre, took part in a round table, "Introduction to the work of artists in residence", at which they met to share their projects and their different methodological approaches during their residencies.

- On September 18th, 2020, Corentine Le Mestre presented the research which she had carried out during her stay. In this presentation, Corentine displayed the beginning of her research that started out from Casa Planes itself to discuss the trans-periphery. A video entitled Missing Edge brings together photographs from the Casa Planas archive, photographs taken from visits she received at the studio, and photographs taken in the greenhouses where plants were growing. Also in the video are the spoken words of Antonia Portel Sastre, witness to an exoticism that has become commonplace, and over which Antonia maintains control as a vendor of plants typically seen in postcards.

Corentine Le Mestre is graduated in Fine Arts from Montpellier in 2016. She is a member of the research group Skene, and she has exhibited her work in collaboration with the Frac OM, the CCN of Montpellier and the Atger Museum. Her project "The Queen's Garden" was chosen as a finalist in the 34th international festival "Jean-Rouch, Hors les murs". In 2019, she joined the MO.CO., 6th edition programme, in partnership with the biennials of Kochi, Venice and Istanbul. Her work has been exhibited in France and abroad, in collaboration with Ateliers Medicis, at the Mulhouse Biennale and at the HASY gallery.

VIDEO ART AND TERRITORY
Idensitat has created an audiovisual piece collecting interviews with participants in this project, from people in the organisation itself to those artists selected in the open call. This video functions both as documentary material, and at the same time as a device for critical reflection and research on the subject of "the transperiphery" and artistic residencies as a working methodology.