Elvire Bonduelle

Elvire Bonduelle was born in 1981, she lives and works between Paris and Marseille (FR)

Elvire Bonduelle is in search of happiness. She creates handles to get a grip on life, modules to soften the edges, or soft wedges to make life less harsh. These curious objects often reveal an absurd functional dimension: a minimalist volume becomes an obstacle intended for training at home. Elvire’s work resembles a playful and offbeat personal development program. It is, in the etymological sense, a form of asceticism—the need for exercise, for a self-imposed discipline aimed at self-fulfillment.

Happiness here is a matter of construction. For every problem, a solution: tears become a decorative motif on a coat, blood inspires a series of ceramic objects, and death is mocked with éclair, a coffin shaped like a chocolate éclair, a gourmet coffin in which the artist poses, smiling.

Through these protocols, Elvire Bonduelle develops a poetic strategy of detachment from reality with as much seriousness as humor. Her works highlight the fragility of our lives while proposing methods for strengthening oneself. Through the introduction of narrative, Elvire creates a parallel world in which anxiety is gradually neutralized and melancholy kept under control. Pleasure is offered as a philosophy.

— Isabelle Lenormand for Étapes no. 155, April 2008.