Karla Hiraldo Voleau : Another Love Story
Photo Courtesy of Artist and Morel Books
Karla Hiraldo Voleau’s artistic work focuses on intimacy as a critical space. Gender, sexuality emotions and the body are all subjects she tackles in her photographs in order to reveal what is
played out beyond appearances. The artist stages herself in her artistic projects, thereby blending autobiographical narratives and fictions. The project ‘Another Love Story’ is based on a person al story; she presents a series of photographs and texts that reconstruct and replicate the last months of her relationship. The artist reflects on the photographic medium as a fictional tool and devises a ‘mise en scène’ of the feeling of love, thus showing the way we reproduce the norms and social evaluations that are supposed to define a couple, often unconsciously.
A year. That’s how long it’s been since Karla Hiraldo Voleau’s exhibition ‘Another Love Story’ first opened at the MEP in Paris in 2022. A year is also the timeframe of the story chronicled in that project – a love story personal to KHV, which shifts abruptly from its climax to its end when she discovers that X, her lover, is leading a double life – a revelation that prompts the artist to question her certainties. If reality is a lie, perhaps fiction is the remedy. KHV reappropriates her story by re-enacting it, highlighting the mechanisms behind the making of a couple. Each costume, location and image composition exists from meticulous planning from the artist, referring to call sheets and buying clothing duplicates from stores. Her work combines photography, performance and writing, and blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, between the individual and the collective. Through this performance, KHV asserts herself as a subject and reclaims the power of her own history. Written by Clothilde Morette, Head of Programming at the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie
Photo Courtesy of Artist and Morel Books
KARLA: I don’t want to intrude into your life [...] but, last week, I discovered that X and you are still in touch. He said that you needed help and support because of your fragility, and he admitted to having lied to me about it. I just discovered all the different events you two went through, and that this has been going on for six months. You can imagine my reaction, and we are on the verge of breaking up. He was incapable during our fight, or after, to get me the answers that I needed. This is why I want to know your role in this situation, and maybe clear some things up. [...] I just... Obviously, my first question is – just to get this out of the way – are you in a relationship with him?
ELLE: Yes.
[pause]
What did he tell you?
KARLA: That he’s not.
Photo Courtesy of Artist and Morel Books
“Re-enacting these scenes allowed me to inject an element of fiction and to become, in a way, a director. I became external to the relationship and was able to regain control over the story. By casting, styling, paying and directing the model, by producing, photographing and posing in the project, I quickly stopped feeling sorry for myself, simply because I was busy. At the same time, stepping outside the relationship in this way allowed me to go beyond the anecdotal aspect and brought about a broader reflection on the idea of the couple.”
Karla
Photo Courtesy of Artist and Morel Books
Biography
Karla Hiraldo Voleau (born 1992), is a French- Dominican artist who lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland. She graduated from ECAL, Lausanne, with a master’s degree in Photography in 2018. She participated in the 2020 edition of the Foam Talent and Olympus Recommended Fellowship. She has exhibited work across Europe and the US, including Another Love Story at the International Center for Photography, New York City, USA (2023).
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