Full Description
Staring Into the Night is a book that brings together Amélie Bouvier’s research and artistic work inspired by astronomical stories and the history of sky observation, from the late 19th century to the present day. Amélie was particularly interested in the collection of astronomical photographic glass plates at Harvard College Observatory in the United States, which she was able to visit in 2019. Its contents have fueled her imagination for the past five years and form the basis of her latest projects, which explore the history of observation, our link to representation and scientific imagery, and the issues that shape our collective memory and heritage.
Text in English and French.
About the Author
Amélie Bouvier grew up in Portugal, studied at the Institute des Arts in Toulouse (FR) from which she graduated with a DNSEP in 2008. She has had several noteworthy exhibitions including those at The Arsenał Gallery (Białystok, PL), Aomori Contemporary Art Center (JP), Biennale Chroniques 2022 (Aix-en-Provence, FR), Sesc Ipiranga (São Paulo, BR), Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid, ES), the Verbeke Foundation (Kemzeke, BE) and Museu Da Cidade (Lisbon, PT). Her work has been included in the 16th Cerveira International Art Biennial (PT). She is the winner of the 2016 Hors-d’oeuvre prize, awarded by ISELP (Brussels, BE). Her first monograph will be published in early 2024. Today Amélie lives and works in Brussels, where she teaches at the Royal academy of Fine Arts. Her work is represented by Harlan Levey Projects, Brussels. Amélie Bouvier’s artistic practice builds from historical research in the field of astronomy to question issues related to cultural memory and collective heritage. Astronomers in particular, and scientists in general, don’t only explain the world, they also represent it through the construction of diagrams, illustrations, photographs or equations. For Bouvier, scientific imagery is an extension of knowledge that reveals ideological and ethical frameworks, which risk cloaking aspects of the reality they aim to represent. She is particularly interested in the sky and stars as a landscape that exposes current socio-political contradictions and knowledge gaps. While her work is based on historical facts, data and visuals, she consistently mixes this with speculative imagery, adapting tools and techniques to present alternative potentialities. Amélie Bouvier is represented by Harlan Levey projects, Brussels, Belgium