Isabelle Cornaro, a French, Paris-based artist, seems to be all over the contemporary art world these days. Having recently completed the prestigious ISCP residency in New York City and being a part of celebrated exhibitions at Gavin Brown, NYC, BaliceHertling, Paris and the Tate Modern, she just wrapped up the show Du Proche et du Lointain at College des Bernardins.

Isabelle works in a range of media including installation, photography and video. Infatuated with the gathering of objects, she arranges them meticulously in archaeological-like displays. Cornaro questions and reflects upon our relationship to these objects and the value we bestow upon them (commodity fetishism), thus putting into question the value of a work of art.

Isabelle told us a little more about the objects she collects and presents.

Where do you find the objects you display in your installations and what makes you decide on exhibiting some over others?

I find items in antique shops and flea markets, like Vanves or Saint Ouen. Some of them are also scraps (pieces gone wrong) from the Sevres Porcelain Manufactory.

I choose them according to certain categories I take into consideration when analyzing our relationship to objects, like their emotional or financial value. This is why I use coins, jewelry, ceremonial or heavily decorated objects, because the level of ornamentation reflects the value we attribute to objects. Other objects reference the need to produce objects, a representation that forms a language in itself, so there are measurement tools, molds, stamps with images, letters, typography, slides etc.

Do you have a special story about one of them that you can share?

Because these objects did not originally belong to me, I don’t have anecdotes about them, except for the large, yellow vase in Du proche et du Lointain. This was bought for me by my gallerist. I needed a big vase and we all found it horrible at first. But it turned out to work really well in the installation.

Do you have strong attachments to your personal belongings, any object you fetishize?

To be honest, I give almost no emotional value to objects of mine. I had many that belonged to my family, but deliberately gave these away.

What kind of object would you give to Kitsuné?

If I were to give an object, it’s probably a small African-type statuette, one which is commonly known as a Fetish.

Du Proche et du Lointain, Exhibition Views, Courtesy of BaliceHertling.