Recently :
march 16th to 21th, 2024, Les origines de la vie, Association Métamorphoses, Espace Michel Frérot, Thaon (Normandie, France)
november 15th (2024) to january 10th 2025, Réalité art actuel in Pré-Bocage Normand "Rétrospective 2014/2024", Micro-folie, Maison citoyenne et Médiathèque de Caumont-sur-Aure
Penelope's Waiting
Penelope and BLNK / The between-image
“The Expectation of Penelope” (The Tent of Penelope) is a poetic and collective plastic installation mixing sound texts and textile creations to evoke solitude, femininity, abandonment, precariousness… and attempts to create links. Weaving on a craft is replaced by knitted weaving, which is more nomadic.
The expectation of Penelope was first a theatrical text: the Return of Ulysses, written by Lena h. Coms in 2010.
Then, L'attente de Pénélope became a plastic installation presented for the first time at the Trianon gallery in 2019 during the collective exhibition Mythologies contemporaines with the collective BLNK and L'entre-image curated by artist Baptiste Vanweydeveldt.
shawls, mittens handmade by Lena h. Coms, help with the scenography: Baptiste Vanweydeveldt, sound device: speaker with speaker or headset and mp3.
The scenography is evolving and the works are mixed with the works of other artists (the sublime tattooed seaweed of Hikari Elle or the delicate ceramics of Lydia Steciuk).
Another presentation of L'attente de Pénélope took place (without the tent) during the exhibition 100 Contacts organized by the collective BLNK (and still under the curatorship of Baptiste Vanweydeveldt) at the Centrifugeuz (Caen) in 2021 .
This time, the scenography is darker, a canvas of Eve (disembowelled) mingles with balls and shawls survivors, a fire passed by there. In the room the mantle of Odysseus' Journey (made by Baptiste Vanveydeveldt) responds for the second time to Penelope’s installation.
Penelope's Waiting, audio text like an answering machine, text, voice, music and editing: Léna h. Coms, (45 minutes), 2019.
photo credit: BLNK/L'entre-image and Léna h. Coms
Penelope and Bivouac
(Reality Arts / Prébocage-Intercom)
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Penelope's album
(The Arts Lab)
At the origin of the tent project (Queshua),Penelope's Waiting(Pénélope's tent) is an aesthetic adventure that responds to a collective project,Bivouac, initiated by the association Réalité Art (artists Régis Bodrug and Pilot Motiv) and supported by Pré-Bocage Intercom Normandie. Penelope's Waitingis also envisaged as an autonomous plastic installation. For this tent installation,
Creation residency, workshop and sound recording around the creation of thepenelope albumat the Labo des Arts (Caen) on April 3 and 4, 2021. the artist Rice'Ωcreated a cyclical album from this workshop: the album can be listened to in a loop, and this is how it is played in the installations.
Pénélope's Quechua tent was presented at the Jardifoliz (Courseulles sur mer), on May 29 and 30, 2021 then in several places in Normandy with the collectiveBivouac, notably during the Route in search of an artist event (with the support of Prébocage Intercom).
The tent is filled with shawls, mittens, balls, needles, notebooks for drawing or writing, cushions for resting and Pénélope's album on repeat.
Penelope's Wait (52 minutes)is a plastic, poetic and collective installation exploring myths, loneliness, the feminine and abandonment.
Album produced by Riz'Ω for the plastic installationPenelope's Waitingbased on excerpts fromReturn of Odysseusby Lena h. Comments
selection of excerpts: Léo Lamour, Riz'ohm, Léna h. Comments
with the voices and sounds of:
Elodie Goudé, Malika Labrume; Goulc'han Lemoine;
Clara Leteinturier; Lise Lagnel Lefevre;
Mathilde Le Quang Soulie; Naig Thome
Technical: Hugues Mignotte, Yann Snuss (the Burning Bruissons), Philippe Germaine
Scenography: Léna h. Comments
Textile creations: Julie de Pierrepont, Léna h. Comments
Cover design: Léna h. Comments
Administration: Marine Pinabel
Penelope's yurt:
from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer toSAY DIFFERENTLY(to the letter)
The tent evolves and becomes a yurt, and more precisely, a bamboo flex-yurt. This yurt was made during a residency open to the public atCent79in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer in July 2022 with the encrage collective and the artist Hélène Jouie. It must then be presented at the exhibition To the letterwith the collectiveSAY DIFFERENTLYin October 2022.
The yurt is presented both outdoors, on the sand, and indoors in an art space or a church (the Church of the old Saint-Sauveur in Caen). Thus, all spectators become potential Ulysses, or pretenders.
The space is bigger and more adaptable, the structure is adorned with shawls, mittens and old clothes. A loudspeaker discreetly placed under a shawl broadcasts Penelope's album continuously.
photo credit: Hikari Elle and Léna h. Comments
Erdinç Y. (caenstreetphotography) and the artists of the exhibition A la lettre/dire AutRemenT
Penelope is waiting for Odysseus (2022)
The residence atCent79in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer in July 2022 was also the pretext for taking sea plans for a concept adapted to social networks (Instagram and Tik Tok) broadcast daily for one minute a day (and is translated in addition to fourteen languages in the comments on Instagram):Penelope_attends_2022.
The Return of Odysseus, read by Léna h. Coms, and juxtaposed with shots of the seaside, in the place where Penelope could await the return of Ulysses.
Ulysses' answering machines - Penelope’s phones
Spectators are invited to pick up the phones: one hears the voice mail of Ulysses then the many messages of Penelope or the sound of the sea.
Spectators can also participate in the work by crocheting the yarns made available.
Les répondeurs de Pénélope et Ulysse,
installation plastique, Téléphones, Mp3, textiles (laines et crochets), sellettes, tabourets, dimensions variables, 2023
voix : Léna h. Coms et Jan Sekowski
Traversée 3 - Les filets de Pénélope / Penelope's nets (Nottingham)
Une troisième résidence aura lieu à Nottingham (UK) en novembre 2023.
Nottingham a un passé historique relié à la dentelle mécanique inspirée de la dentelle aux fuseaux ; pour cette résidence axée sur l'écologie et l'art minimaliste, j'ai choisi de pratiquer un travail performatif autour du tricot avec les bras afin d'évoquer les filets de pêche, le tout dans des points de dentelle au tricot. Telle Pénélope (voir la page autour de Traversée 2), j'ai fait et défait mes ouvrages.
La première série en vert évoque la végétation, tandis que la seconde évoque la mer.
Le maillage du tricot ainsi étiré évoque aussi bien la dentelle que le filet de pêche (où Pénélope espère peut-être pêcher prétendantes, prétendants et Ulysse ?) que la toile d'araignée qui vient envahir l'espace et les œuvres des autres artistes.
