10 Questions with Lily D'Olce

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE16 | Featured Artist

Lily D’Olce (b. 1993) is a French artist and photographer who studied at the University of the Arts of London. With a background in classical music and modern dance, her reflections on emotional states and body performance developed into a sculptural photographic process. Her latest series features a continuum of figures in extension, soaring through both remote and industrialized settings. Since 2022, her journalistic work for a slum-upgrading program on the African continent engaged her in the complex realities of informal settlements, where people’s approach to informality, community development, and empowerment marked a decisive - constructivist - turn in her interpretation of feminine energy. Lily D’Olce’s work has been shown in galleries and independent exhibition spaces in Nairobi and Spain.

lilydolce.com | @lilydolcce

Élongations | Project Statement

The series Élongations evokes a burst of self. Elastic figures stretching out, each of them seeking graphic affirmation. Sculpted momentums, where head and feet are practically absent, find their way into deserted settings, peri-urban territories, and informal settlements with a continual forward movement. The metaphysical poetry of the desert is used as a Nietzschean place of thought, where a spirit in motion can imagine its self-overcoming. In that expanse, protagonists measure themselves against the heights of existing landscape lines, tonalities, and steady objects in an intimate dialogue. In this quest, structures overlap, energy sources mirrored, and perspectives redrawn. Verticality is used to reflect willpower and emancipation: subjective signals redefining topographic lines. Thousands of kilometers away, the frenetic urbanization of Nairobi manifests a growing need for sustainable energy. Living sculptures are wired into urban stratification as binders and energy reservoirs. The light hits the fabric and the spokesperson inside releases heat. Between self and fantasy: a theater hosting feminine exuberance in its reflective, resolute, and eruptive nature.

AL-TIBA9 ART MAGAZINE ISSUE16

INTERVIEW

Let's talk about yourself. When did you first approach photography and what sparked your interest in this medium?

My interest in the photographic object surfaced after ten years of playing classical music and practicing modern dance. I was drawn into portraiture as a means of capturing the face of melancholy or a rêverie, as well as of freezing bursts of rhythms and emotions: astonishment, bliss, pleasure, and desire. I have always been attracted to other people's nervousness; was it a way of echoing my own. It was during a succession of trips that I began to collect pensive, dazed, or elated faces on bright and pigmented backgrounds, with the intention to emphasize an internal movement. Prior to the action itself of grasping an image, it is a prelude that has long triggered me: that is to say, the discussion that precedes the connection that is established, immediately or not, with the subject during the photographic process.
I experienced a distinctive white and definite light in the streets of London that had a significant role in my preference for natural lighting. In the following years, certain spaces affected me more than others, such as Cuba, Buenos Aires, Andalusia, North African countries, Beirut, and Canada. I practiced close-ups repetitively, sometimes on the edge of cinematography, in an attempt to portray characters who rise through their posture and their gaze and who always show a feeling of moving forward. I used it to initiate a conversation around feminine energy and, above all, self-emancipation. Two specific elements have consistently nourished my interest in the still image: the rhythm of light in vacant spaces and the transient energy that permeates live music gigs.

Your biography mentions your studies of classical music and modern dance. Can you share how these experiences have influenced your artistic journey and development?

The self-discipline one finds in classical music impacted my structural sense, as well as my sensitivity to layered patterns.From a desire to visually represent rhythm to the tones of my own melancholic events: the passage from a 'symptom body' to a 'sublimated body.' In the series Élongations, my intention is to represent a series of characters whose disarticulation, deconstruction, deformation, and self-indulgence seem to be linked into one same continuum. I wish, through my slender figures, to go beyond the limits of individuation, of the skin, of the body and its weight, in the idea that what is to be contemplated is the momentum that propels them.
That said, my composition choices may echo the relationship with my own body. But also the act of mirroring the other, the stranger, or pain in an act of creation. The disguised body addresses the disappearance of social play. My intention is often to arrange a set of symbolism that provides the protagonist with space to release phantasmagorical impulses. In mymost recent series, there is an underlying question of real or imaginary pulsion, with figures in full effort, seemingly lifting heavy masses or trying to rehabilitate objects left adrift. These characters exist in the frame through the manipulation of their own body and in the very action of constructing their own image. For me, photography allows a form of theatricalization.

What other training and experiences helped you become the artist you are today?

I grew up in the studio of a visual artist, immersed in a painting and sculpture process articulated in different phases, from figurative to total abstraction. That punctuated my childhood. It is certain that the use of certain materials, particularly the modeling of forms in resin, the superposition of content and container, layers of warm colors, and transparency effects, have not left me indifferent. However, I would say that my photographic approach stemmed from a specific interest in emotional states and body performance. Visual signatures of Pina Bausch, Fela Kuti, and Robert Mapplethorpe impacted my quest for bodies in movement and in exile.
My course of academic studies in London on literary subjects from Latin America, as well as identity movements in post-colonial contexts, have largely influenced my subjects and choices in representation. Subsequently, I was deeply markedby Les Fleurs du mal and its transgressive symbols. Poetry, in general, influenced the way I see the (bodies), the colors, and the sounds responding to each other. "To a woman passing by" is exemplary of the statuesque depiction of feminine manifestations.

Speaking of your work, could you describe your creative process and how it has evolved over the years?

The process used in the series Élongations presents a sort of fetishism where the reappropriation of the body seems central. Each time more dissimulated, these living statues wrapped in textile aim to create a form of extension, of abstract and graphic affirmation, whether fluid or rigid, in a timeless but recognizable decor. I am particularly interested in the effect of lure and alienation in the image, as well as the projection of oneself into the other. Sometimes, a mass, a wreck, a dune, or a barrack can represent that Other. The shapes are obtained through the construction of momentum and their measurement against surrounding objects.
These figurines seek to express themselves as emotional and sentimental reactions. Their shapes and colors seek to fit into existing landscapes, filling the frame as a stain of paint might do. There is an intention to create a void, a depth, or an opening. Each figure (or duel) incites the next, echoing the Nietzschean principle that one thought directly provokes another thought. The emerging sequence or chain of feelings becomes symptomatic. A body needs to rise and, in rising, wants to overcome itself. Experimenting with the idea of figurines posing proudly, I developed a taste for role-playing. Desolated or industrial settings have become my favorite shooting ground. There, I found an appropriate place to represent desire or impulsiveness in the late afternoon sun. Geometrical shapes such as bluish rectangles of swimming pools, worn tires, scales, water tanks, fishing nets, boat hulls, and turbines are all possibilities for body extension and contribute to creating surreal atmospheres.

Human bodies are central and key to the composition of your work, yet they are disguised. How did you come up with this idea?

Using anonymity has been a way to universalize a sentiment. The fixed body shape, uncovered, had become limiting to me. That process of concealing bodies allowed me to focus on their élan rather than on their identity. The body never truly disappears. This form of camouflage got me farther and farther from what was initially a figurative intention: a tool to merge bodies, colors, and sounds and to obtain a whole. This allows me to visually reflect on the internal landscape of sensation, emotion, or cognition. I have recently been reflecting on the thematic of psychological, social, bodily, and acquisitive forms of self-extension. The use of large pieces of textiles helps me create perspective, resonance, or graphic associations. Sometimes, it is entirely motivated by color and form satisfaction.
I have always been very sensitive to artistic fashion photography, and the sense of voyeuristic anthropology and staging process impacted my creative approach. Not a body being looked at, but the form and energy of the being looked at. That is maybe what made me want to mask identities to express them differently. Each body in the frame seeks to neutralize the threat of female sexual desire but rather make it match the background graphically. I have been interested in the notion of the body as a simulacrum: visual associations rather than what we expect to see. Disguised bodies allow rhythmic undulation without dissociation. 

Ultimately, what inspired the creation of the series Elongations, and what does the series aim to convey about self and identity?

Community groups and associations engaged in better urban planning in the urban settings of large megalopolises of Africa significantly inspired my sculptural approach. I am referring to cooperatives, often led by committed women and optimistic youth, forming a sort of enveloping social fabric. Élongations refers to a desire to emancipate oneself and to build on what is there while giving it a new value. I was privileged to hear stories of residents of informal settlements, the tales of their everyday routines and visions. From fuite to solace, the series materialized in the form of a sequence.
The use of textiles can also be a way to go beyond the materiality of the garment and become a binding agent, a shield between the subject's integrity and their social performance. There is also a reflection around the erotic and the imagined body as objects of desire. It was as if the availability of an exposed body was too artificial. Sometimes trapped in a chaotic framing, figures meander across the stage, get lost, wander, pulse, and surface, dressed in a livid fabric that, shiny and almost liquid, systematically covers their arms and head before covering the legs into an only pose.

Why did you choose deserted settings and peri-urban territories for this series? Do they hold a specific meaning, and how do they help convey your message?

Vacant spaces, such as deserts, hangars, ports, or dumpsites, allow for the transient deconstruction of all values, where free-spirited characters surpass themselves and hypothetically mirror energy resources. The desert, seemingly deprived of biodiversity and in which morality is fought, is watched over by a mystical character. The desert as a Nietzschean place where can be found groups who have escaped the tyranny of false ideas. In these desolated settings, the wrapped figures rejoice in their own intensity. They reject the idea of external control in a sustained act of affirmation. Such industrial, desertic environments also provide access to a diversity of textures, layers, and abandoned material to use, lift, or superimpose into, for example, a stone dream.
I've often wanted to represent the intention to put something new into an object that's been abandoned, dilapidated, or broken, as if these hidden characters wanted to reform something, a status, an economic power, or even a condition. Suburban environments may also echo any lack of basic services, such as water and electricity, that have an impact on the quality of life. Maybe it is a reference to the fact that, while people in settlements need adequate housing, they, above all, need ways to express their identity, as well as access to services of good quality. Covering pieces of certain material with shiny fabrics was a way of expressing this idea.

You also worked on a journalistic project about informal African settlements. What did you learn from this experience? And how is it reflected in your work?

My work in informal neighborhoods on the outskirts of large and stratified megacities has allowed me to better understand the phenomenon of appropriation of public spaces and new forms of management of informal spatial practices, which aremore inclusive and better adapted to local needs. Above all, the importance of such an approach in the enrichment of human capital. I was able to observe the capacity of communities to informally negotiate the sharing of public spaces. The social justice mandate particularly strikes me in informal settlements: placing the rights of all people at the heart of economic, social, and environmental policies. In the attempt to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion, inequality, unemployment, and lack of social protection, all of which are priorities. 
One believes that an appropriate space is considered one's own by an individual who, therefore, uses it as a resource for personal purposes. I search this a double process of densification and generally unplanned sprawl. Massive changes in demographic and socio-spatial structures are a source of major challenges, including contestation by thousands of individuals who negotiate their use and appropriation of land. The appropriation of space is something recurring in my photographic work. Contrarian cities fueled my desire to superimpose shiny on matte, silky on torn, luminous on dark, and stable on clutter.

What new themes or directions are you interested in exploring in your future projects?

I am currently exploring the idea of sensual assertiveness and body machinery further, as well as experimenting with larger-scale installations to be photographed. These may involve more bodies inside the frame, as well as their deletion. I am working on developing a new sculptural – constructivist - technique for my compositions, using metal sheets, bars, sticks, wheels, glass, and other large materials to visually echo structures of thoughts and power systems. My research focuses on the transformation of any poorly controlled, although resourceful spaces, as well as the management of local capacities, networks of influence, and relational dynamics at the community level.

Finally, are there any upcoming exhibitions or collaborations we can look forward to seeing from you soon?

I am currently exploring the possibility of exhibiting in Korea and Italy. More details to share in due time!