Sève Favre — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Sève Favre is a contemporary Swiss artist and an art historian.

For several years now, Sève Favre has focused the main part of her artistic work on abolishing the classic frontier between a work of art and a spectator. She explores fields covering both abstraction and coloured sensations, figurative themes or the musicality of words to increase the sensorial experiences and reflections generated by art.

Among the artist’s favourite mediums, paper holds an important place since it is flexible and part of a vast tradition. Her choice of techniques, on the other hand, is varied but with a clear preference for mixed procedures.

The majority of her paintings stem from this search. Indeed, those viewing a work of art are traditionally kept at a distance in order to limit the risks of deterioration which could have consequences for the conservation or value of the work. In a museum or at an exhibition, visitors are not allowed to get very close to a work or to reach forward to touch it, even with the finger tips... Sève Favre proposes a completely different approach: the artist hopes that the spectator overcomes the ancient taboo and touches, moves, discovers ... despite the fragility of the paper.

This determination of the artist is in contrast with the general trend of our society, which stubbornly wishes to constantly push back the limits of time and which therefore develops conservation techniques that are ever more high performance and sophisticated. With Sève Favre, the enjoyment of a work of art is intimate, tactile and, consequently, flirts with what is ephemeral. In this way the spectator is confronted with a new appreciation of time and the fleeting nature of what is around us.

This active, almost physical, participation of the spectator becoming actor helps erase the limits between the painting, sculpture, installation and performance and, even more importantly, between the artist and the spectator.

Sève Favre gives the spectator choices, which implies that the latter enters into a more intimate relationship with the artist, but also with him or herself.

Indeed, we are all passively undergoing a modern world where the place of images is growing exponentially, and often insanely. But Sève Favre asks us

to act and think, helping us to find a balance through reflecting on the image. Do we wish to hide or shut ourselves off? To show or open up? The work that emerges from this encounter between the artist and the spectator takes many forms, the result of the proposal of one and the action of the other. It becomes personal, constantly changing and reversible.