Elias Hanselmann is off to a good start in his life as a visual artist

How has your artistic project evolved since graduating from art school?

Yes, it has evolved since I graduated from ESAD Pyrénées in 2022. I've continued to develop my work using two different approaches. First, when I'm in my studio, I work with paint, focusing on abstract subjects. It's like a research laboratory, experimenting with how the shape of the support changes the forms, how light interacts with color. I'm very comfortable in my studio; I could stay there endlessly, exploring. But when I'm in residence, it's completely different. I'm outside my studio, and I allow myself to incorporate more of the outside world with photography and found objects, opening myself up to new possibilities. For example, with "Négations," I paint by inverting the colors, like a negative of a funny or bizarre scene that I then photograph. In this case, it's a dead pigeon in a smashed mailbox. The public sees the painting as a coded image, and through a device, they see the negative of the painting, resulting in a double negation that is not the positive image one would have painted directly. This raises the question of what we see versus what we are told.

From residencies to exhibitions, we've often seen your work!

I've done quite a few residencies since "Pollen" in Monflanquin, which was my very first application. There have been others since, such as when we were invited to the Omnibus with Mallaury Thenier for a three-week residency that resulted in the exhibition "Ce/ux qui reste/nt" (Those Who Remain). Mallaury and I also participated in Joseph Gallix's residency at Solazur with the Médianes association. And currently, we're exhibiting at the Chai Doléris cellar in Lembeye with six artists from the La Chaise collective.

Is La Chaise the alumni association of ESAD Pyrénées?

Yes, La Chaise is a collective created by fifth-year students to pool resources and have a space. It's located at 10 rue Desaix in Tarbes. It's become my home base because it opens doors to funding and opportunities for group exhibitions, like the ones we've done at Le Parvis, several times as part of the Tarbes summer cultural program, at Le Kairn, at La Maison de ma Région in Tarbes, at L'Omnibus, and others.

What are your current projects?

I'm working on several things at the same time. Right now, it's an abstract painting based on a specific process: I start from a point and draw straight or curved lines, like a contrasting border, with gradients to return to the background color. There's also the one that's in the window of La Chaise. I also made a small painting with a warped canvas, where the canvas is no longer meant to be flat but instead creates volumes. And to see how the light moves across the canvas and how the forms are disrupted. It's like an equation: light, color, and surface.

Where can we see your work?

The exhibition at Chai Doléris in Lembeye is still running until the end of the month. There's also the window display at La Chaise. And then online: my website and Instagram.