Van Gogh House London

In April of 2023, Van Gogh House welcomed artist and writer Clémentine Bedos.

Clémentine Bedos is a London-based artist, researcher, and educator. With a background in law, philosophy, and fine arts, their transdisciplinary practice traverses the multidimensional oppressions faced by subaltern bodies and communities. They are a Generation Delta Champion and PhD Candidate in Art and Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Visit Clémentine’s website ⟶ 

Clementine’s residency was centred around themes of spirituality, resilience, and fragility.

The project ‘Loving Fugitives, Runaway Images’ centres on a transgenerational dialogue between Clémentine and their grandmother, the ‘outsider’ artist Jeanne Durand. Confined to an asylum, Jeanne frequently communicated with her family through thousands of letters and daily flower drawings.

Clémentine spent three and a half weeks living and working at Van Gogh House, completing a text and accompanying performance that they had begun on residency at the Mahler-Lewitt studios in Spoleto, Italy in 2022. Working in near total isolation, they aimed to get as close to their grandmother’s creative process as possible.

“From an exploration of the feminine, mystic or altered states of consciousness, my research draws upon my grandmother’s lived-experience of confinement in an asylum. Labelled ‘schizophrenic’, Jeanne spent most of her life behind walls. Isolated, confined and soaked in chemicals, her bended body would not be gelded. She draws, day and night, the flowers that with my young mother they used to sell in the street of Roubaix in France. Wrapped in brown and white envelopes, she continues to post her concentric and kaleidoscopic creations to her lineage: her daughters and me. This is the way my grandmother, who has been transplanted and dispossessed of everything, is still supporting and caring for her family.”

— Clémentine Bedos

As part of their residency, Clémentine developed a performance and temporary installation in the house. Stacks of Jeanne’s flower drawings placed alongside porcelain casts and reference material taped on the walls of the first floor study. Further ‘traces’ were left throughout the house, including ‘Prana’ a hologram, ‘Magnetic Resonance’ a projection in the bath, ‘The Astrologer Poet’ an embossing plate for a paper bookmark, and a recorded interview with researcher Angela Loum on virtuality and pregnancy. 

On the 29th April 2023, over 40 people gathered in the front parlour to hear Clémentine read their text, followed by a group meditation and a walk to the neighbouring square, Durand Gardens. Wild rose seeds were tossed in memory of Jeanne, who by coincidence shares a name with the gardens. 

After the performance at Van Gogh House, the project has the chance to be performed in Paris, at the Van Gogh Europe Seminar held at Atelier Néerlandais in conjunction with the Musée d’Orsay. Clémentine performed their work, amongst presentations from the Museum van de Geest in Haarlem (Museum of the Mind), the Van Gogh Museum and the Musée d’Orsay.

Thank you to Fluxus Art Projects, Mahler & LeWitt Studios, the Society of Authors and Van Gogh Europe for supporting this project.