Alexandre Joly

Sino/Swiss Residency Exchange Programm 2009/10
Institute/Lab:  Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB), Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Artistic background: Art
Alexandre’s Website 

For several years Alexandre Joly has been using tiny speakers, called “piezos”, in many of his artworks, in order to make them produce sounds. He presents sounds recorded in natural settings (weather, landscapes, insects, frogs etc.) and sometimes mixes them with electronic sounds and frequencies. During his residency in China Alexandre Joly is planning on creating a novel kind of sound installation inspired by amphibian animals’ sound communication, using field- as well as lab recordings. He hopes for the Artist-inLabs-Residency programme to allow him to receive a new kind of inspiration via microscopic pictures, shapes and colours, e.g. from amphibian animals’ skin.

Born in 1977 in France, Alexandre Joly lives and works in Geneva. He studied at Geneva University of Art and Design where he took his postgraduate degree in 2003. His works have been exhibited in Switzerland, France and Germany, and he has received a number of prizes and artist residency grants. Alexandre Joly is interested in materializing sound by the transmission of vibrations on the surface of water and has frequently collaborated with theater and dance groups. On the occasion of his solo exhibition in the art museum of Le Locle, Switzerland in 2009, the monography “Alexandre Joly – Polyphonie animale” was published.