Clelia Coussonnet

Clelia Coussonnet an independent curator, art editor and writer. Her practice revolves around how visual cultures tackle political, social and spiritual issues in different, or complementary, ways than other disciplines. She likes to create interdisciplinary projects outside of traditional art circuits, particularly in contexts linked to craft or heritage and in spaces previously unused for cultural projects.

Lately, her research has been revolving around botanical politics and power structures. She has been investigating how systems of meaning have been impressed upon flora throughout eras of imperialism, colonialism, and globalisation, and considers nature not as passive but as an integral agent in History. In this, she organised the exhibitions Botany under Influence at apexart, New York, USA (2016) and Leave No Stone Unturned [Remuer la terre] at Le Cube — independent art room (2019), and wrote Waking Dormant Seeds, an essay looking at academic, artistic and curatorial practices focusing on botanical politics for Theatrum Botanicum, edited by Uriel Orlow and Shela Sheikh (2018).

Recently, she curated Alter me, Alter you [Промени ме, променям те] at the Goethe-Institute Sofia, Bulgaria (2018); Olympic Stadium at Le Patio, Paris, France (2018); and co-curated with Claire Astier the show, performance and night screening Au loin les signaux, al lou’lou’ held during the Heritage Days in the dockyards of L’Anse du Pharo, Marseilles, France (2017).
In 2019, she participates to the HICP residency in Helsinki and to Tate Intensive: The Case for Action at the Tate Modern, in London.

As an editor, she published driftongue with Clément Faydit and Alexandros Simopoulos (2018), result of a residency in Nuuk, Greenland (2017) —a workshop organised by Hors Pistes between international designers and local craftsmen. She also co-edited with Missla Libsekal In/Visible Voices of Women, an artist’s book on Safaa Erruas, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Nicène Kossentini, Amina Menia and Zineb Sedira (2019).

Links
• Website of Clelia Coussonnet
• Editorial project “In/Visible Voices of Women”, eds. Clelia Coussonnet & Missla Libsekal, artist book about Safaa Erruas, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Nicène Kossentini, Amina Menia, Zineb Sedira
• Editorial set driftongue, with Clément Faydit & Alexandros Simopoulos
• Essay published in “Theatrum Botanicum”, eds. Uriel Orlow & Shela Sheikh