Leïla Pile describes her artistic process as rooted in every site she invests, adopting its dimensions and the flows of the built environment. Hence, each new setting provides the terrain for a unique experiment leading to the emergence of the final expression of the artist's gesture. The artist then follows a precise and rigorous protocol involving walking, measuring, drawing, dyeing, weaving, unrolling and winding, thereby understanding the space and magnifying the material. Her body provides the basis for measuring her environment: steps, fathoms, half-toises, cubits, hands, hand spans, and palms are all incorporated into drawings and visual scores made from woven strips and dyed threads. In these compositions, each unit follows the other, crossing or desynchronising itself in the spirit of conceptual music. For this exhibition, Leïla Pile has hand-woven the spatial dimensions of the Villa Empain on a traditional loom, in the form of two coiled ribbons: these 31 and 36 half-fathom – the distance between the sternum and the fingertips – convey a new perception of space on the scale of her own human body. The two rolls (respectively equal to the width and lenght of the Villa) condense and record the place in two objects that can be transposed. These pieces evoke the weavings of Anni Albers, for whom the dimensions of the body, movement, and systematisation also constituted important themes.

Text by Fabrice Biasino, for the exhibition Anni and Josef Albers, iconic couple of modernism, 2024, Fondation Boghossian.

 

Exhibition views, Anni and Josef Albers, iconic couple of modernism, 2024, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels.
Pictures : Silvia Cappellari

 
 
 

36 demi-toises en spirale, 2024, graphite and ink on paper, 30 x 26,8 cm.

 
 
 

31 demi-toises en boustrophédon, 2024, graphite, ink and coloured pencil on paper, 30 x 26,8 cm.

 
 
 

Notations pour la Villa Empain, 2024, graphite, ink and coloured pencil on paper, 30 x 23 cm.

 
 
 

Longueur Villa Empain = 31 demi-toises, 2024, weaving, dyeing, wool, linen,
2700 x 4,7 x 0,1 cm.

 
 
 

Largeur Villa Empain = 36 demi-toises, 2024, weaving, dyeing, wool, linen,
3120 x 4,7 x 0,1 cm.

 
 
 

Exhibition view, Anni and Josef Albers, iconic couple of modernism, 2024, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels.
Pictures : Silvia Cappellari