ABOUT
ABOUT
Bodies in Space and primal energy
Corps dans l'espace et énergie première
Isabelle's practice traverses a compelling arc from spatial critique to ontological inquiry, consistently interrogating the material and symbolic conditions through which bodies manifest in space. Her early series "Outlinings" and "Upstream" established a rigorous methodology for visualizing the biopolitical, mapping flows of crowds, traffic, and urban development to articulate how power inscribes itself through the regulation of collective movement. "Upstream" (2005), a monumental interactive video installation at Paris City Hall's Nuit Blanche, operated as both spectacle and critical apparatus, rendering visible the choreographies of mass mobility that structure contemporary urban experience. This structural analysis gave way to a sustained engagement with performativity. Drawing explicitly on Goffman's dramaturgical sociology and Butler's denaturalization of gender, her portrait series featuring drag queens, voguers, and fashion models function as visual arguments, demonstrating how iterative performance produces, rather than expresses, identity. These works locate the photograph itself as a site where normative categories destabilize under the pressure of self-conscious embodiment.
Bodies in Space and primal energy
Corps dans l'espace et énergie première
Isabelle's practice traverses a compelling arc from spatial critique to ontological inquiry, consistently interrogating the material and symbolic conditions through which bodies manifest in space. Her early series "Outlinings" and "Upstream" established a rigorous methodology for visualizing the biopolitical, mapping flows of crowds, traffic, and urban development to articulate how power inscribes itself through the regulation of collective movement. "Upstream" (2005), a monumental interactive video installation at Paris City Hall's Nuit Blanche, operated as both spectacle and critical apparatus, rendering visible the choreographies of mass mobility that structure contemporary urban experience. This structural analysis gave way to a sustained engagement with performativity. Drawing explicitly on Goffman's dramaturgical sociology and Butler's denaturalization of gender, her portrait series featuring drag queens, voguers, and fashion models function as visual arguments, demonstrating how iterative performance produces, rather than expresses, identity. These works locate the photograph itself as a site where normative categories destabilize under the pressure of self-conscious embodiment.
Portrait by Jullette Valtiendas
Portrait by Jullette Valtiendas
A structural analysis
The performative turn found its logical extension in her documentation of urban dance communities, where she repositioned urban dances as a technology of resistance—bodies in perpetual negotiation with disciplinary structures, carving out zones of autonomy through movement. Her collaborative project with sociologist Dana Diminescu, "UBI-Screen," extended this investigation into the digital realm, examining how mediated presence reshapes intimacy in diasporic contexts.
Most recently, Isabelle has moved beyond observational practice to engage imagination directly, using dance and water as metaphors for vital energy. Constructing ephemeral landscapes from suspended droplets, she attempts to materialize what she terms "cosmic vitality," the animating principle beneath all social formation. Here, the image operates at the threshold of representation, seeking to render perceptible the energetic substrate that precedes and exceeds the visible.
Her work resides in the French National Contemporary Art Fund, the City of Paris Fund, and the UBS Foundation Collection. The National Museum of Immigration's 2023 acquisition of "UBI-Screen" confirms her position within critical discourses on mobility, identity, and mediation.
The performative turn found its logical extension in her documentation of urban dance communities, where she repositioned urban dances as a technology of resistance—bodies in perpetual negotiation with disciplinary structures, carving out zones of autonomy through movement. Her collaborative project with sociologist Dana Diminescu, "UBI-Screen," extended this investigation into the digital realm, examining how mediated presence reshapes intimacy in diasporic contexts.
Most recently, Isabelle has moved beyond observational practice to engage imagination directly, using dance and water as metaphors for vital energy. Constructing ephemeral landscapes from suspended droplets, she attempts to materialize what she terms "cosmic vitality," the animating principle beneath all social formation. Here, the image operates at the threshold of representation, seeking to render perceptible the energetic substrate that precedes and exceeds the visible.
Her work resides in the French National Contemporary Art Fund, the City of Paris Fund, and the UBS Foundation Collection. The National Museum of Immigration's 2023 acquisition of "UBI-Screen" confirms her position within critical discourses on mobility, identity, and mediation.
“When I started photography, I was hunting for structural forms in contemporary society
Now, I create my own photographic structures, drawing on imagination to evoke a world breaking free.”
“When I started photography, I was hunting for structural forms in contemporary society
Now, I create my own photographic structures, drawing on imagination to evoke a world breaking free.”
Isabelle Grosse
Selected solo shows
2016 invited speaker at UCLA (University of California)
2014-2015 October-January, « Structures in Chaos », Gianna Sistu Gallery (Paris)
2009 Docks Art Fair, Lyon, France, « Dis-Appearances », Vanessa Quang gallery, Paris (France)
2008 « Shaping », Maison des Arts de Malakoff (France)
2006 « Bouger les mots », interactive public installation, Bucarest (Romania)
2005 « Upstream », monumental interactive installation, Paris city hall square (France)
2004 « Cache:moi », Nuit Blanche (Paris) Photo studio, installation, Palais de Tokyo (Paris)
2004 « Reversible », Centre for contemporary art, Castres (France)
2003 Residency, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux (France)
2001 « Formatter », Anton Weller gallery (Paris)
1998 « Urban marker », 150 meter long urban strip wrapping the Odeon National Theatre (Paris)
1997 « Recto/Verso », installation,Maison de la Radio (Paris)
1997 « Defaire l'image », installation for the 50th edition of the Festival de Cannes (France)
Selected group shows
2025 « Paris en Vues », Place de l’Hotel de Ville de Paris (Fond Municipal d’Art Contemporain)
2025 The International Photography Biennale Photo Hanoi (Vietnam)
2012 « Collectionner aujourd'hui », Saint-Restitut contemporary art center (France)
2011 « Modèles danses », European month for photography, Arsenal de Metz (France)
2011 « Home sweet home », Arthotheque du Limousin (France)
2009 Contemporary drawing art fair in Paris, Vanessa Quang gallery (France) European Photography Month (Luxembourg)
2008 « l'Artothèque au Musée », Art and archeology Museum, Gueret (France)
2008 « The Month of images », Ho Chi Min (Vietnam)
2007 « Venezia video art fair », Venice (Italy)
2007 « Transimages 2 », French Institute, Yokohama (Japan)
2007 « Rencontres photographiques de Solignac » (France)
2006 « Transimages 1 », French Institute, Yokohama (Japan)
2004 « video : séquence 1 », Maison des Arts de Malakoff (France)
2004 « autres frontières », Artothèque du Limousin (France)
2003 « Inout Festival », Praha (Czech Republic)
2003 « A l'année prochaine », Artothèque du Limousin (France)
2002 « Trade », NFI (Nederlands Foto Institut), Rotterdam (The Nederlands) La Fabrique, Tokyo (Japan)
2002 « Quick Mode/ Mode acceleré », Vox gallery, Montreal (Canada)
2001 « Trade », Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland) Art Forum Berlin, Anton Weller gallery (Germany) FIAC Paris Anton Weller gallery (France)
2000 « emplacements/deplacements », Anton Weller gallery, Paris (France)
2000 « domiciles », Tanlay Art center, Tanlay (France)
2000 « L'art dans le vent », Chamarande Art Center (France)
2000 « Les semaines européennes de l'image », le Havre (France)
1999 FIAC Paris, Anton Weller gallery (France)
1997 « Le centenaire d'Aragon », Blanc Mesnil Center for Culture (France)
Public collections
2023 : Ubi-Screen, part of the permanent collection of The National Museum for the history of the immigration (Paris), « Palais de la Porte Dorée »
FNAC (French National Fund for Contemporary Art)
BDIC Museum (Paris)
Fond Municipal d'art contemporain de la Ville de Paris (City of Paris Fund for Contemporary Art)
Fond Départemental d'art contemporain du Nord (North Region Fund for Contemporary Art)
Fond Départemental d'art contemporain de l'Essonne (Essonne Distr. Fund for Contemporary Art)
Artothèque du Limousin (Limousin Contemporary Art Museum)
Private Collections
CMA-CGM Corporate Foundation (third largest container shipping company in the world)
UBS Corporate Collection (Switzerland)
COLAS Corporate Collection (largest road building company in the world)
Private collections
CMA-CGM Corporate Foundation (third largest container shipping company in the world)
UBS Corporate Collection (Switzerland)
COLAS Corporate Collection (largest road building company in the world
Selected solo shows
2016 invited speaker at UCLA (University of California)
2014-2015 October-January, « Structures in Chaos », Gianna Sistu Gallery (Paris)
2009 Docks Art Fair, Lyon, France, « Dis-Appearances », Vanessa Quang gallery, Paris (France)
2008 « Shaping », Maison des Arts de Malakoff (France)
2006 « Bouger les mots », interactive public installation, Bucarest (Romania)
2005 « Upstream », monumental interactive installation, Paris city hall square (France)
2004 « Cache:moi », Nuit Blanche (Paris) Photo studio, installation, Palais de Tokyo (Paris)
2004 « Reversible », Centre for contemporary art, Castres (France)
2003 Residency, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans Sartoux (France)
2001 « Formatter », Anton Weller gallery (Paris)
1998 « Urban marker », 150 meter long urban strip wrapping the Odeon National Theatre (Paris)
1997 « Recto/Verso », installation,Maison de la Radio (Paris)
1997 « Defaire l'image », installation for the 50th edition of the Festival de Cannes (France)
Selected group shows
2025 « Paris en Vues », Place de l’Hotel de Ville de Paris (Fond Municipal d’Art Contemporain)
2025 The International Photography Biennale Photo Hanoi (Vietnam)
2012 « Collectionner aujourd'hui », Saint-Restitut contemporary art center (France)
2011 « Modèles danses », European month for photography, Arsenal de Metz (France)
2011 « Home sweet home », Arthotheque du Limousin (France)
2009 Contemporary drawing art fair in Paris, Vanessa Quang gallery (France) European Photography Month (Luxembourg)
2008 « l'Artothèque au Musée », Art and archeology Museum, Gueret (France)
2008 « The Month of images », Ho Chi Min (Vietnam)
2007 « Venezia video art fair », Venice (Italy)
2007 « Transimages 2 », French Institute, Yokohama (Japan)
2007 « Rencontres photographiques de Solignac » (France)
2006 « Transimages 1 », French Institute, Yokohama (Japan)
2004 « video : séquence 1 », Maison des Arts de Malakoff (France)
2004 « autres frontières », Artothèque du Limousin (France)
2003 « Inout Festival », Praha (Czech Republic)
2003 « A l'année prochaine », Artothèque du Limousin (France)
2002 « Trade », NFI (Nederlands Foto Institut), Rotterdam (The Nederlands) La Fabrique, Tokyo (Japan)
2002 « Quick Mode/ Mode acceleré », Vox gallery, Montreal (Canada)
2001 « Trade », Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland) Art Forum Berlin, Anton Weller gallery (Germany) FIAC Paris Anton Weller gallery (France)
2000 « emplacements/deplacements », Anton Weller gallery, Paris (France)
2000 « domiciles », Tanlay Art center, Tanlay (France)
2000 « L'art dans le vent », Chamarande Art Center (France)
2000 « Les semaines européennes de l'image », le Havre (France)
1999 FIAC Paris, Anton Weller gallery (France)
1997 « Le centenaire d'Aragon », Blanc Mesnil Center for Culture (France)
Public collections
2023 : Ubi-Screen, part of the permanent collection of The National Museum for the history of the immigration (Paris), « Palais de la Porte Dorée »
FNAC (French National Fund for Contemporary Art)
BDIC Museum (Paris)
Fond Municipal d'art contemporain de la Ville de Paris (City of Paris Fund for Contemporary Art)
Fond Départemental d'art contemporain du Nord (North Region Fund for Contemporary Art)
Fond Départemental d'art contemporain de l'Essonne (Essonne Distr. Fund for Contemporary Art)
Artothèque du Limousin (Limousin Contemporary Art Museum)
Private Collections
CMA-CGM Corporate Foundation (third largest container shipping company in the world)
UBS Corporate Collection (Switzerland)
COLAS Corporate Collection (largest road building company in the world)
Private collections
CMA-CGM Corporate Foundation (third largest container shipping company in the world)
UBS Corporate Collection (Switzerland)
COLAS Corporate Collection (largest road building company in the world
CONTACT
WEBSITE BY ANTONIN FARRUGIA
WEBSITE BY ANTONIN FARRUGIA