Charlotte Houette

Charlotte Houette (1983, France) lives and works between Paris and La Courneuve. A graduate of the Paris Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena), she uses optical motifs to subvert our visual reference points, creating a tension between the surface of the painting and its depth. Her works have been exhibited, among other venues, at High Art (Arles, Paris), the Fondation LUMA (Arles) and the CAC Brétigny. She is also co-founder of the experimental school The Cheapest University and promoter of the alternative education program EAAPES.

Her residency project explores the Baroque style as a veritable “machine for seeing” designed to strike awe in viewers. In Rome, she is studying some spectacular historical installations, such as Andrea Pozzo’s scenographic device in the church of the Gesù, where a painting is lowered by a mechanical system to reveal a statue beneath it. At Villa Medici, Charlotte Houette intends to create “painting-installations” inspired by these systems: mechanical paintings that visitors can walk through, around or activate. These mobile works are the artist’s reflection on the way in which images capture our attention and give centre stage to power.