Caroline Denervaud

Written By Maria Vogel

Caroline Denervaud does not like to define her artistic practice. She views it as on ongoing experience that changes every day. Her multi-media explorations involve drawing, painting, writing, video, sculpture, among other mediums. Though wary to call herself an artist, here, Caroline gives us a glimpse into her life as a creator.

Your work straddles a lot of categories and mediums. How did you come to decide that you were not going to confine your work to one genre?

I like to say that I’m searching. I don’t want to be close in a genre or repeat the same. Depending of what I feel I chose to express it on paper or in movement. I really like that freedom.

Do your ideas influence how you choose to create or do you choose a method of creation and then decide on an idea?

It depends on the feeling. I don’t really have a precise idea first. I like to feel and let it go.

On your website, you refer to your work as ongoing research. Can you explain what this means?

It’s hard to consider myself as an artist. My work is a constant exploration and hopefully will never stop! As a living person here and now I think that I grow, and my work evolves too.

You live and work in Europe. Do you find that there is an art community that extends beyond where you are located at a given time?

I live in Paris. I don’t feel an art community around me, but I have had the chance to have friends who are artists to share joy, fears, and envies.

Has there been an experience in your career thus far that you felt was a landmark moment?

Yes, there have been some. These moments are more personal than artistic but there’s some commissions that were real landmarks too. Working on commission always puts me further and opens my practice.

Which artists, living or dead, inspire you most?

Paul Klee, Serge Poliakoff and Pina Bausch.

How do you stay inspired in your practice?

It’s not always easy but I work every day, and this keeps me going on. Also, being alone and the silence that comes with that inspires me.

At the end of every interview, we like to ask the artist to recommend a friend whose work you love for us to interview next. Who would you suggest?

Pascaline Dargant. She’s a photographer and a close friend.