Chantal Pollier
Chantal Pollier (1965) graduated in Psychoanalysis and clinical consulting at the University of Ghent in 1990, she also graduated in sculptural and moulage techniques at the KASK (Royal Academy of the Arts of Ghent) in 1991. For 7 years she worked as a psychoanalytical psychotherapist in a centre for children with learning disabilities and socio-emotional problems.
She finally decided to live life as an artist, never forgetting her psychological roots. For seven years, she combined her sculpting practice with working as a teacher in sculpting techniques for children and adults, collaborating with many non-profit organisations with social-artistic aims.
She stopped teaching in 2009. She now works in her studio in Ghent, doing occasional restoration work on contemporary sculptures in stone, exhibits regularly and has curated several exhibitions, often in collaboration with scientific institutions. She is one of the founders of Art Flow collective or AF.
On a regular basis, she invites people in her studio to talk about different aspects of working as an artist and she is often invited in art schools to inspire others.
“All my work holds references to temporality and transience. Many of my pieces are rooted in science, with a particular interest in geology, biology, anatomy and morphology. The way in which collaborating artists and scientists can enter each other’s territory, and the extent to which they can thereby add new dimensions to both their own work, leads to refreshing perspectives. The skin forms a protective barrier between a being and everything that exists outside that being. A vulnerable border, which through recognition simultaneously invokes empathy and the urge to cross an invisible border. Time and again, I am captivated by the interesting tension between the futile facts of her memories and the magnificence of nature. I try to rewrite my interpretations in a formal language where memories and markings appear on the surface – the skin – of my work. Time is a strange thing. In nature time becomes almost meaningless, considering the history of the Earth our time becomes minute. And in this minute we must act, in kindness and beauty…”
Select Exhibitions
2024 ‘Quasar Jazz’, ism Van staartjes VZW, Bazel
2023 ‘Dark’, Ghent University Museum, Gent
2023 ‘Fear’, Psychiatric Centre, Beernem
2023 ‘Vesalian Landscapes’, Universiteit Antwerpen
2022 ‘Ten years of Cecilia Jaime’ Gallery, Gent
2022 ‘This is not a landscape,’ PAK Gistel
2022 ‘Silent noise’, Verduyngallery, Moregem
2021. ‘Resten’, cultuurcentrum De steiger, Menen
2021. ‘A butterfly’s scream’, Psychiatrisch centrum, Beernem
2021. ‘Knipoog naar Van Eyck’, Cultuurcel Gentbrugge-Ledeberg
2020‘Buy Local’, Kunsthal Gent
2019. ‘Traces’, Gent
2019. ‘Kunst kijken in het begijnhof’, Gent
2019. ‘Féminin’, Oostende
2019. ‘Het nest tussen waarheid en herinnering’, Damme
2018. ‘Harry and friends’, Oudenaarde, (B)
2018. ‘Healing, with Poperinge, Watou
2018. ‘Cosmonauts of inner space’, Brussels
2017. ‘Appealing to the populous’, Humboldt Universität Berlin
2017. ‘Buul’, Horebeke (B)
2017. ‘Resten’, Cultureel centrum De Steiger, Menen
2016. ‘In front of’, Academy of Modern Art, Zottegem
2015. ‘In de luwte van de tussentijd’, art festival, Watou
2015 – 2014 ‘Fabrica Vitae’, travelling exhibition, Riga (Latvia), Saint-Louis and Atlanta (USA), Athen and Zakynthos (Greece)
2015. ‘When Art meets Science, a neuroscientific perspective on art’, congress and exhibition, Maastricht (Netherlands)
2015. ‘Post Mortem’, Art and Science exhibition, Ghent
2014. ‘Lijf’, six flemish artists, galerij de Compagnie, Dordrecht (Netherlands)
2014. ‘The body is the instrument of the soul’, The Old Operating Theatre, London
2013. ‘War and Trauma’, Guislainmuseum – Ghent
2013. ‘Histories of thought’, Sint-baafsabdij, Ghent
2012. ‘Fin de Gris’, benefiet, Zebrastraat, Ghent
2012. ‘Pharmacopoeia, the art of Popping the Pills’, Antwerp
2011. ‘Van de Koele Meren des Doods’, beelden van de dood in de Hedendaagse Kunst, Bornem
2011. ‘Letting Go’, Sint-Amandsberg
2011. ‘De Pathos van pathologie’, University of Antwerp
2011. ‘Relics of what is to Come’, The Old Operating Theatre, London
2011. ‘Not until we’ve beaten Cancer’, University of Antwerp
2011. Solo exhibition, CC Berlare, gastspreker Guido Van Hercke
2010. ‘oud-studenten van KASK stellen tentoon’, CC Zilverhof, Ghent
