JULIE GROSCHE

Eclipsed, (trailer) 2023
HD Video 38:00 mins

Using humor, cynicism, spoken words, dance, and singing, Eclipsed is about the invisible labor, pain, and transformation that motherhood provokes in women. Taken from a memoir the artist wrote about motherhood, 7 texts are interpreted in different situations by different actresses, turning it into a fictional documentary.

My End Is a Legend (teaser), Julie Grosche & Florian Sumi, 2015-2022
HD Video 34:14min
In collaboration with Emma Frost Nixon - Laura Gozlan - Edouard Le Boul’ch - Katy McCarthy - Christine Navin - Elizabeth Orr - Laura Porter - Deirdre Sargent - Lucas Seguy - Yoan Sorin - Marc Yearsley

Two characters convey a group of artists to perform their alter ego as defined by an omniscient character. The group performs different activities around material, crafts, and movements. These people, gifted with apparently trivial trades, infuse magic within the elements, building rituals, moving to patterns, taming fires, ... They are introspective about themselves and about the group as an entity. They make, search, engage, build, dance but for what? The two costumed characters observe. They ask questions in a confined space reminding us of reality TV confessional setups. Who are they? Deities like presence? TV hosts? Aliens? Is it an experiment? Unanswered questions remain, experiencing prevails.

Coercing Nectar, 2021
HD Video 1:40min

Extracted from Grosche’s in-progress memoir about motherhood, the text from Coercing Nectar describes a moment of emancipation from breastfeeding and mothering. The cloud chamber where the words emerge from is a device displaying invisible tracks of natural background radiation. All earthly materials that are the building blocks of life contain a radioactive component. Through this device, we become witnesses of a form of desire, of everything wanting to come in contact with everything. Breaking, changing, creating through encounters. Here frictions create vaporous words of a mother becoming new with a moment to herself. As the sound gets louder we recognize something mechanical, medical, the sound of a respirator allowing someone to heal or to stay alive or the slowed-down sound of a breast pump. Critical and/or nurturing. The regular intervals at times are enhanced by strokes of crash cymbals for the punchline of a cynical comedy. The drum crescendos to nothing but a simple promise made to oneself. No applauds for the trivial drunk mom trying to regain dimensions.

Extrait du récit biographique sur la maternité en cours d'écriture de Julie Grosche, le texte de Coercing Nectar décrit un moment d'émancipation face à l'allaitement et au maternage. La chambre à brouillard d'où émergent les mots est un détecteur de particules nucléaires qui montre leur passage dans la matière. Tous les matériaux terrestres qui sont les éléments constitutifs de la vie contiennent un composant radioactif. A travers ce dispositif nous devenons témoins d'une forme de désirs, de tout voulant entrer en contact avec tout. Casser, changer, créer par la rencontre. Ici, les frictions forment les mots vaporeux d'une mère qui se renouvelle lors d’un moment seule. Au fur et à mesure que le son augmente, on reconnaît quelque chose de mécanique, de médical, le son d'un respirateur permettant à quelqu'un de guérir ou de rester en vie ou le son ralenti d'un tire-lait. Mort ou vie. Les intervalles réguliers sont parfois agrémentés de coups de cymbales crash comme pour souligner les punchlines d'une comédie cynique. L’instrument s'intensifie mais ne culmine qu'à une simple promesse intime. Pas d'applaudissements pour la maman ivre triviale qui redécouvre ses dimensions.

THE EYE CAN SEE THINGS THE ARM CAN NOT REACH, 2020

Co-curated exhibition by Julie Grosche and Like A Little Disaster

Artists: Farah Al Qasimi — The Army of Love — Meriem Bennani — Hannah Black — Kate Cooper — Emma Balimaka & Adrien Cruellas & Florian Sumi — Cécile B. Evans — Adham Faramawy — FCNN — Dorota Gaw — Alex Goss — Julie Grosche — Ilana Harris-Babou — The Institute of Queer Ecology — Derek G Larson — Hanne Lippard — Jen Liu — Katy McCarthy — Orla McHardy — Shala Miller — Virginia Lee Montgomery — Shana Moulton — Sondra Perry — Agnieszka Polska — Tabita Rezaire — SAGG Napoli — Stephen Vitiello.

ONSITE Chiesa di San Giuseppe – Polignano a Mare Italy No opening hours

ONLINE Sajetta

Documentation on Daily Lazy

Tender Isolation, 2020
HD Video 4:56min

In Tender Isolation, two microorganisms are about to kiss. Borrowing the codes of epic-romantic films, a conversation leads them to merge on an air of electro-optimistic music. This work, written before but carried out during the pandemic, was largely influenced by the spread of the virus. In the video one of the two characters creates organisms in the image of the other character; a sort of portrait à la Pygmalion. This organism strangely resembling the coronavirus, spreads like a feeling of love and becomes contagious. The mutual attraction between the two characters is palpable and engages us in a whirlwind of desire and gentleness.

Dans Tender Isolation, deux micro-organismes sont sur le point de s’embrasser. Reprenant les codes des films épiques-romantiques, une conversation les amène à fusionner sur un air de musique électro-optimiste. Ce travail écrit avant mais réalisé pendant la pandémie, a largement été influencé par la propagation du virus. Dans la vidéo un des deux personnages créé des organismes à l’image de l'autre personnage ; une sorte de portrait à la Pygmalion. Cet organisme étrangement ressemblant au coronavirus, se propage tel un sentiment amoureux et devient contagieux. L’attirance mutuelle entre les deux personnages est palpable et nous happe dans un tourbillon de désir et de douceur.

Des Mémoires Collectives, 2019
HD video 7:29 min

In Des Mémoires collectives, we follow a little girl from behind moving through an insular landscape. We watch the video and what we are watching is described to us by a voiceover. The voice mentions both the little girl who plays the little girl and the island as backdrop. It also tells the tragic stories of these places taken from literature. The morbid tale embodied by a young body on an idyllic island makes one shiver. The artist walks us through different stories and we witness the making of a new one. A polyphonic story, influenced by the point of view of people who slowly mark time and landscapes through life and death.

Dans Des Mémoires collectives, nous suivons une petite fille de dos se déplaçant dans un paysage insulaire. Nous regardons la vidéo et ce que nous regardons nous est décrit par une voix off. Le texte, mentionne à la fois la petite fille qui joue la petite fille et décrit l'île en tant que toile de fond mais raconte également les histoires tragiques de ces lieux issue de la littérature. Le récit morbide incarné par un jeune corps sur une île idyllique ne laisse pas le spectateur sans frissons. L'artiste nous promène à travers différentes histoires et nous assistons à la fabrication d'une nouvelle. Une histoire polyphonique, influencée par le point de vue des gens qui marquent lentement le temps et les paysage à travers la vie et la mort.

Obol, 2020
100 pewter coins
In collaboration with Christine Navin

A possible field of experience, 2019
2 channel video 11:23 min

A Possible Field of Experience is an eco-feminist musical set in the wine region of Burgundy. Inspired by the political movement of the 1970s which draws the interconnections between the domination undergone by women and nature, the artist stages men, women, a grape and a thyroid reorganizing power. Gradually, the dominated characters gain more authority. Powers are redistributed, through exultant chants and end in a celebration of love, life and nature.

A Possible Field of Experience est une comédie musicale éco-féministe qui se déroule dans la région viticole de Bourgogne. Inspiré du mouvement politique des années 1970 qui dessine les interconnexions entre la domination subie par les femmes et la nature, l’artiste met en scène des hommes, des femmes, un raisin et une thyroïde réorganisant le pouvoir. Peu à peu, les personnages dominés obtiennent plus d'autorité. Les pouvoir se re-distribuent, par le biais de chants exultés et se terminent par une célébration de l'amour, de la vie et de la nature.

My End Is a Legend, 2019
A4 laser prints
In collaboration with Florian Sumi

I love U, 2018
HD video 4:46 min

In I love U, a seducing bot simulating a conversation takes control of a chat. Part submissive, part cutting she becomes a tool of feminism, a modality, a technology to question and transform the dominant ideas around representations of the feminine in technology. With the concept that love nowadays happens through the apparatus and digital technology, the bot seizes a moment of inattention to whisper a tale about colonized machines(-women).

Dans I love U, un chatbot féminin, séductrice simulant une conversation prend le contrôle d’un chat. A la fois soumise et tranchante, elle devient un outil du féminisme, une modalité, une technologie pour remettre en question et transformer les idées dominantes autour des représentations du féminin dans la technologie. Avec l'idée que l'amour passe aujourd'hui par le dispositif et le numérique, le bot saisit un moment d'inattention pour murmurer un conte sur les machines (femme) colonisées.

amour amour amour, 2018
HD video 14:23 min

In this universe, humanoids address the question of their conditions. A child asks his mother what they are, a group comes up with a new concept of life around love, a line by Virginia Woolf is constructed of little lights and a child says that it is impossible to cry in zero gravity. Beyond the representations that we could attribute to them: artificial intelligence, avatars, roboids, human ersatzes, they live in their history and are not strictly the object of our experience. The mother announces to her child, “we are data'' and that is what they embody. They use songs to connect beings through the ages as the only effective technology of transmission. Together, they create a village, a family questioning how to live together, how to transmit, why to love and how to exist.

Dans cet univers, des humanoïdes abordent la question de leurs conditions. Un enfant demande à sa mère ce qu’ils sont, un groupe propose un nouveau concept de vie autour de l’amour, une phrase de Virginia Woolf se construit de petites lumières et un enfant affirme qu’il est impossible de pleurer sans gravité. Au-delà des représentations qu’on pourrait leur attribuer : intelligence artificielle, avatars, roboïdes, ersatz d’humains, ils vivent dans leur histoire et ne sont pas strictement l’objet de notre expérience. Comme l’annonce la mère à son enfant “nous sommes data” et c’est ce qu’ils incarnent. Ils utilisent le chant pour connecter les êtres à travers les âges comme seule technologie efficace de transmission. Ensemble, ils créent un village, une famille qui s’interroge sur comment vivre ensemble, comment transmettre, pourquoi aimer et comment exister.

Between dog and wolf, documentation of performance at Ditch Projects

Between dog and wolf, HD video 15 min, 2017

Vocals by Adrien Wagner Liksskinaa

Please contact me to see full video

Text by Marc Yearsley

Between Dog and Wolf is a single-channel film accompanied by a live musical performance, with music and lyrics composed by Julie Grosche. Inspired by ancestral folk music, Grosche presents a story from the perspective of a mythic European horse, whose existence is sustained by the people that believe in him. Translated from the French expression “entre chien et loup”, between dog and wolf refers to the twilight, a charged and saturated visible spectrum at the climax of the day. Blurring fact and fantasy, Between Dog and Wolf is a methodology for shaping reality by collective belief. Natural and artificial wind power – a secondary, more elusive protagonist – interchange drones, and ground this mysterious hymnal of an aspirational, energetic future.

“Between dog and wolf;” a phrase anchored by multiple pasts, hinting at strange futures. Normally reliable perception is suddenly labored and foreign in an unfamiliar hour. Sunshine radiantly and with speed fades into moonlight before the other day begins, and twilight luxuriates as the essential, prehistoric “between”, a cosmic liminality.

And what, literally, is between dog and wolf? Atomic and metaphorical forces - of genetics, evolution, time, blood, of potentialities, economics, partnership, nomadism. It is an expression of domestication and displacement, somewhere between companion and stranger, friend and enemy. From the past towards a time to come, we are always struggling to distinguish between the dog and the wolf. But at dusk, as the sun explodes before it disappears, a timeless scene comes into focus.

Grosche’s research for this new film investigates the Medieval myth of the supernatural horse, Bayard. A horse of extraordinary talents, Bayard is depicted in texts from the 12th–19th centuries in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Believed to be the progeny of a serpent and dragon who was freed from a volcanic island, Bayard earned the ire of King Charlemagne by elongating his back and ferrying four knights who were escaping the king. Given to Charlemagne as a peace-offering by the enemy, Bayard was thrown in the bottom of the Rhine with heavy stones around his neck as punishment. Escaping certain death, Bayard fled into the Ardennes Forest and, according to legend, can be heard neighing in the forest during the summer solstice.

Manifest Destiny was an uncritical refrain that guided a nation both spiritually and materially, supporting a faith of blind expansion and conquest. Much like Bayard, Manifest Destiny is belief shaping action shaping reality, but its severe outcome left a nationalistic legacy on the bloodied terrain. Grosche transposed this myth from the European Forests to the landscape of the American frontier – itself a mythic site in the Western Imagination. She removes the story from its militarized, textual history to place it anew, in an imagined expanse that may have somehow achieved partial restoration from its own extermination. The vibrant Montana autumn is the crucible for the fusion of the wild mustang – a species that reclaimed itself from the double wound of extinction and domestication - with the legend of Bayard.

Both a key to the technological evolution of humans and a sensual, indigenous figurehead, the horse is an endless referent. Culturally, we fill it with meaning; a vehicle, a machine, a weapon, an image, a metric of force, a young child’s dream, a sport, a native, an impossibility. Feral and indigenous, the North American horse was primarily a food source before becoming extinct. It was returned with the Spanish, changed, as an import, a good, a means of transportation, exploration, and conquest. This organic engine of heat and muscle, critical to the development of civilization, borne with weird power and economics that continue to grow from this primitive biotechnology. Today, the horse is specialized, relegated to a hobby/sport/business amalgam, a shadow economy of gambling and breeding, a tool in a game for the global aristocracy.

The reality of today’s horse is a striking departure from the anthropomorphized and sentimental idea of the Horse. Scientifically bred, enhanced by designer drugs, run for their lifetimes until their hyperfunctional and singularly optimized synthetic bodies collapse under their own unnatural weight. Here, Grosche helps us to see these creatures in a slower pace, absent the usual movements or tempo. Placed in familiar scenery - the wild - their bodies are at rest, and Grosche maintains a distance, activating all these itinerant connections to redefine its key contours. Struck by the image of a poky horse with no rider, we are left feeling somewhere between haunted and inspired.

Even our wild horses are not so wild, they are on borrowed time in a way, and have re-tuned themselves to an ersatz pre-domestication state. Their classifications are boundless, as every facet of their demeanor and biology is catalogued over their improbable run on this continent. They are no longer a resource or a generator, only a linguistic skeuomorph. Taken as a complex historical symbol whose utility has faded, Grosche presents a group in search of an object of devotion. Caught in between demanding present and a bleak future, this group turns its attention to survival and worship, betting their salvation on something even more ephemeral than a fantastical horse - the wind.

For the film's opening, the song will be staged live by three people who will perform in alternating combinations of solo and duet. Part interpolative gesture, Blackfoot Nation member Adrien Wagner Liksskinaa sings the lyrics in another completed version of the film. The flux of the songs performance is deliberate, in a move to decentralize and disseminate the “work” of art along and between its disparate registers – time and space, real and synthetic, documentation and animation, translation and quotation, music and noise, song and sound, past and future, alone and together.

Being between is always a most heightened form of presence. It demands extreme attention of the precipice, of danger and safety; it is an awareness of precisely where you are not. Between myth and a cult, wild and domestic, artificial and organic, Grosche interrogates a system of beliefs: a magical horse, reality television, human empathy, alternative, boundless energy. In this video, a new crowd gathers around a new faith, a new trend, a new diet, a new power, and they codify their practice with an exultant mantra, a belief that the breeze will hear, and act on, their prayer.

mineral ceremony, video loop 8:28 min, 2016
music by Airport

ANWAR, video loop 4:14 min, 2016
music by Hunter Pharis Johnson

my end is a legend, in collaboration with Florian Sumi
LED lights, comforters, iPhones, LED lights, laser cut paper, video loop 8:25 min
2016 Performed by AWWA at Galerie Escougnou-Cetraro, Paris
2015 Special thanks to a.KNACKFUSS and Wulfy Benzo
Performed at M.E.W, Brussel