Press release from Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum 09.17.2024
Imprints of Laugarnes

Exhibition of works on paper by Carl Philippe Gionet in Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum
September 28th to December 1st 2024

Carl Philippe Gionet is a pianist and multi­disciplinary artist. Whether as a soloist, col­labora­tive pianist, or peda­gogue, Carl is in high demand, mainly in Europe and Canada. He com­plet­ed his doctor­ate in piano per­form­ance at the Uni­versité de Mont­réal under the dir­ect­ion of Paul Stewart in 2010. He has also re­ceiv­ed special­ized train­ing in col­laborat­ive piano in Austria and Eng­land, and par­tici­pat­ed in num­er­ous prest­igi­ous inter­nat­ional summer pro­grams. In 2013, he found­ed Musique sur mer en Acadie, an organ­izat­ion dedi­cat­ed to edu­cat­ion and dif­fus­ion of clas­sical music in franco­phone min­ority com­munit­ies, and since 2014 he has been col­labora­tive piano prof­essor and vocal coach at Breno Italy Inte­rnat­ion­al Music Aca­demy (BIIMA) and at the Centre for Opera Studies and App­reci­ation (COSA−Canada).
    Carl is also a visual artist, primari­ly paint­ing and video in­stall­at­ions, work­ing almost ex­clu­sive­ly in black and white. Inspir­ed by the con­trasts observ­ed in nat­ure, his work is both intro­spect­ive and con­templa­tive, allow­ing the work to ex­press its­elf, there­fore offer­ing count­less av­enues of inter­pret­at­ion. He is re­present­ed by Galerie ART-ARTISTE, and his works have been in numer­ous solo ex­hibit­ions all across Eastern Canada. Carl had his first Europ­ean ex­hibit­ion last July at the Cantieri Culturali in Val Camonica, Italy, with his video in­stall­at­ion Méditation sur saint Sébastien. In­spired by the con­trasts ob­serv­ed in nat­ure, his work is both intro­spective and con­templ­ative, al­low­ing the work to ex­press itself, there­fore of­fer­ing count­less aven­ues of inter­pret­ation.
    Carl is also a writer. Nomin­ated for the Prix Anton­ine-Maillet − Acadie Vie with his book Icare (Icarus), publ­ish­ed by Éditions Prise de parole in 2021, his latest book, a trans­lat­ion of Mary Jane Mosquito by cree author Tomson High­way, was re­leas­ed in March 2024. His lat­est alb­um, Tu me voyais, featur­ing his ar­range­ments of twelve Acadian folk songs with him and sopr­­ano Christ­ina Raph­aëlle Hald­ane was re­leas­ed by Leaf Music in 2022. The score for his ar­range­ments is publ­ish­ed and distri­but­ed by Éditions Doberman-Yppan.

ARTISTIC APPROACH
As a mus­ic­ian, Carl Philippe Gionet con­sid­ers that it is es­sent­ial for him to have im­ag­es in mind in order to per­form well. They serve as a guide and can help in the event of tech­ni­cal probl­ems. How­ever, when he starts paint­ing, abso­lute sil­ence is neces­sary for him. If imag­es can influence his music, the op­pos­ite does not apply. These two worlds live in paral­lel but are not alw­ays reconcil­able.
    For paint­ing, Carl pre­fers work­ing with wood be­cause this solid basis al­lows him to en­grave, to press with force on the un­usu­al instru­ments with which he ex­plor­es the mat­er­ial. Old paint­brush­es, screw­driv­ers, cedar shingl­es, bamboo rods, found ob­jects, every­thing can be used to create his paint­ings. Even the paint, oil or water, mostly comes from ab­andon­ed cans. He experi­ments with the chem­ical re­act­ions which some­times cause the “accident” where the es­sence of the work takes shape. To give free rein to the spont­ane­ity of his cre­ation, a large work sur­face is neces­sary. When the time com­es for the inner Big Bang, he likes this space where the gest­ure can be ex­pres­sed in raw emot­ion, in total abandon, with­out any intent­ion. The same goes for black and white: the possi­bil­it­ies of inter­pret­at­ion are end­less and light springs from these chiar­oscuro con­trasts. The work is open to emo­tion and that is all that matters. It’s up to us to enter with­out restraint.

FOR THIS EXHIBITION
Imprints of Laugar­nes ex­plor­es the inter­play be­tween the nat­ural en­viron­ment - parti­cul­arly the pat­terns and text­ur­es found in the sur­round­ing rocks − and the art­istic leg­acy of Sigur­jón Ólafs­son. Laugar­nes, where the Sigur­jón Ólafs­son Muse­um is loc­at­ed and known for its rug­ged landscape and rich hist­ory, serv­es as a primary source of in­spir­at­ion.
    In this ex­hibition, Carl chose to work al­most ex­clusive­ly with graph­ite on pap­er. Draw­ing with graph­ite offers a unique ex­peri­ence, root­ed in con­trasts and meticul­ous detail. Unlike the ex­pansive gest­ures of large paint­ings, work­ing with graph­ite de­mands a dif­fer­ent phys­ical ap­proach and ment­al space, one of pre­cis­ion and subt­lety. The frag­ility of the pap­er, with its deli­cate sur­face, echo­es the org­an­ic nat­ure of wood, from which it or­igin­at­es. This con­nect­ion deep­ens with the real­izat­ion that graph­ite it­self is der­iv­ed from rocks, link­ing the act of draw­ing to the land’s history. Every mark made on paper carr­ies the es­sence of these natural mat­er­ials, blend­ing the trans­ient with the endur­ing in each care­ful stroke.
Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum • Laugarnestangi 70 • 105 Reykjavík • tel +354 553−2906 • LSO(at)LSO.is