Floa Fleur
Description de l’oeuvre :
L’histoire de ce que Flo présente à COLORS commence plusieurs mois avant Strasbourg, lors d’une résidence à La Réunion avec Stom500 et Fritures de Style. Les discussions, les dessins et le travail à plusieurs ouvrent de nouvelles pistes. Parmi elles apparaissent les kokeshi, une recherche que Fritures de Style, collectionneuse de ces poupées japonaises, nourrit également par des échanges de photographies et de références. Les kokeshi viennent du Japon. De petites poupées de bois à la silhouette très simple, presque réduite à l’essentiel, mais dont aucune n’est véritablement identique à l’autre. Selon celui qui la fabrique, l’endroit dont elle vient, le visage qu’on lui dessine ou les motifs dont on l’habille, chacune prend son caractère. Des petites présences plus que de simples poupées. Il y a forcément quelque chose qui parle à Flo là-dedans : ses propres personnages fonctionnent un peu de la même manière. Et derrière ces silhouettes différentes apparaît aussi, ici, une jolie idée de la pluralité des féminins. Pendant quatre mois, Flo fait vivre cette piste. Elle dessine, invente un coloriage, teste les encres et les matières, réalise notamment deux œuvres sur papier.
À Strasbourg, elle repart précisément de cette recherche, en conserve les tonalités et décide de la faire grandir. Car ici, l’œuvre ne s’arrête pas au mur. Les deux kokeshi deviennent aussi des volumes, volontairement différents dans leurs tailles et leurs silhouettes. Un banc complète l’ensemble. Sur l’un des kimonos, Flo invite Olivia De Bona à dessiner librement, presque instinctivement : une façon très simple de matérialiser leur rencontre et son goût pour le travail partagé. Et puis il y a ce bleu. Profond, enveloppant. Celui de ses recherches sur papier, mais aussi celui de l’océan qu’elle regarde chaque matin avec son café et l’horoscope à La Réunion et dont elle a voulu ramener quelque chose jusqu’à Strasbourg. L’or vient accrocher la lumière et réveiller l’ensemble.
Alors il faut regarder le mur, les poupées, le banc. Mais peut-être aussi s’y asseoir, prendre un café, discuter avec quelqu’un, regarder les gens passer et laisser circuler quelques mots et quelques bons sentiments. Ce serait sans doute la meilleure façon de faire vivre son œuvre. Avec, forcément, beaucoup de love.
ENGLISH :
Artwork Description
Flo à Fleur lives in Terre Sainte, on the island of Réunion. It’s her neighbourhood, her playground and, over the years, almost an open-air gallery: today, it’s hard to walk through its streets without coming across one of her dolls or murals. She’s the BOSS of the neighbourhood!
And yet Flo came to street art relatively late. By then, she had already travelled extensively, met people, observed and allowed other cultures to become part of her life. Even today, she juggles several careers at once: French teacher, massage therapist and artist. A journey that has shaped a unique, curious artist who is particularly open to others. Her mission in life? She sums it up in one word: LOVE.
Flo has a presence. An unapologetic sensuality, dozens of silver bracelets that jingle as she moves, a fluid way of moving and a genuine ease when it comes to connecting with people. Encounters are part of her creative process. Working alongside other artists stimulates her, pushes her beyond her habits and makes her want to experiment. And Flo tries everything: paint, ink, cardboard, crochet, pencil, oil pastel… Her playground has virtually no boundaries.
She also has her own rhythm. An idea can remain somewhere in the back of her mind for a long time before she decides to act on it. But once the first gesture is made, everything moves very quickly: she produces, explores, mixes and bounces from one idea to the next.
Around the age of forty, she came across an old calendar featuring a little doll she had drawn many years earlier. Encouraged in particular by Jace, a major figure in Réunion’s street art scene, she decided to give the character more space. The little girl left the paper and moved onto the walls, gradually becoming her signature. It was also a way of keeping alive that spontaneous, playful and intimate part of ourselves that we carry from childhood.
The story behind what Flo is presenting at COLORS began several months before Strasbourg, during a residency in Réunion with Stom500 and Fritures de Style. Conversations, drawings and collaborative work opened up new possibilities. Among them emerged the kokeshi, a line of research that Fritures de Style, a collector of these Japanese dolls, also explored through exchanges of photographs and references.
Kokeshi come from Japan. They are small wooden dolls with a very simple silhouette, almost stripped down to the essentials, yet no two are truly identical. Depending on who makes them, where they come from, the face that is drawn on them or the patterns used to decorate them, each develops its own personality.
Small presences rather than mere dolls.
There is inevitably something in this that speaks to Flo: her own characters work in much the same way. And behind these different silhouettes emerges another beautiful idea: the plurality of femininities.
For four months, Flo developed this idea. She drew, created a colouring activity, experimented with inks and materials, and produced two works on paper in particular.
In Strasbourg, she picks up precisely where this research left off, keeping its colour palette while deciding to make it grow.
Because here, the artwork doesn’t stop at the wall. The two kokeshi also become three-dimensional sculptures, deliberately different in size and silhouette. A bench completes the installation. On one of the kimonos, Flo invites Olivia De Bona to draw freely, almost instinctively: a very simple way of making their encounter tangible and expressing her love of collaboration.
And then there is this blue. Deep, enveloping. The blue from her paper studies, but also the blue of the ocean she looks at every morning over her coffee and horoscope in Réunion — and something she wanted to bring all the way back to Strasbourg.
Gold catches the light and brings the whole piece to life.
So yes, look at the wall, the dolls, the bench. But perhaps you should also sit down, have a coffee, chat with someone, watch people go by and let a few words and good feelings circulate.
That would probably be the best way to bring her artwork to life.
With, inevitably, a whole lot of love.
