Born in 1982 in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, France, Amélie Viale studied applied art and interior design in Lyon. During this education, she specialised in computer graphics. Until 2019, she worked as graphic designer. At the same time, she further developed her artistic oeuvre and started to expose her works. Since then, she dedicates herself completely to visual art with a focus on photography, performance and installation.
In her work, Amélie reflects on her personal experience. Thus, she is often the main protagonist in her oeuvres. A starting point for this strategy is the series “Holidays” from 2014, where she photographed herself with an iron at the marshalling yard of Fos Coussoul in Fos-sur-Mer, France. In doing so, she questions the influence of domestic work on the female emancipation. The photo “Allez viens ! on part en vacances.” (Come on! we are going on holiday.) from this series is our artwork of the month in January 2022.
Subsequently, Amélie inquired inter alia about her feelings after a passed relationship, motherhood and her efforts to do unpleasant tasks. Her travels and residencies influence her research about the significance of femininity for herself and in the society. Travelling alone through Poland, she photographed herself in the hotel rooms where she stayed. The outcome of her investigation “Vous Voyagez seule ?” (Are you traveling alone?) was on view in many personal and group exhibitions.
With her investigation “L’art de guérir” (The Art of Healing) about the invisible in caring, Amélie tried to detect hidden energetic connections between therapist and patient using an infrared camera. With her “Laboratoire de soins artistiques” (Laboratory of artistic care), founded in 2022, she invites the public to participate and gives space for co-creations. For example, she encouraged people to collect water to fill it in a roll-on stick in order to use it for individually specified care. This indicates her further research for bridges between art and spirituality.
However, Amélie also focusses on more rooted to soil subjects, for example architecture. For her series “Jeux Utopistes” (Utopian Games), she reviewed building ensembles by utopian architects. On a journey to Spain, where she studied works by Ricardo Bofill and his studio, she also made photos beside the official series, but with the same unusual companion: a latter. One of these pictures, “Marcher sur l’eau” (Walking on Water), is our Artwork of the Month / November 2024.
Since 2010, Amélie’s works were on view in many solo and group exhibitions, mainly in France, but also in Italy, Belgium, Canada and Chile. She made several artist-in-residencies and published some micro-editions about her artistic project. Additionally, she is founding member of the “Collectif 867”, an artist residence in Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières, France. In October 2024, the “Collectif 867” showed the outcome of their common work in the exhibition “Passage-des-Serments”. From 1st to 3rd of November 2024 Amélie organises the virtual happening “Reliques Cryptiques” on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amelie_viale/, where she opened her archive to make the invisible tangible. On Friday 13th December, the artist proposes a performance in Paris as invitation to discover her oeuvre and to enable a form of healing to the spectators (32 rue Saint-Paul, district The Marais).
Amélie lives and works in Lissieu, France.