Valentine Louafi

Valentine Louafi has always been fascinated by the play of shadows and lights. During her studies in film she made several short films in which silhouettes come to life. She also wrote and presented her thesis on this topic. After a detour in which she worked as a graphic designer, she decided to devote herself anew to her artistic practice, leaving drawing for paper art. She is inspired by Street Art utensils, a Japanese technique for Kirigami and work by the German presenter Lotte Reiniger, and makes portraits cut out of paper, with surprising precision. Using photographs that she reworks using a computer and then a simple scalpel, she seeks to render the smallest details on a white piece of paper, which she superimposes onto a black background. The constraints of this technique make her push harder for inventiveness in order to represent the textures of hair or the embossed designs of fabric, and these challenges make her improve her work constantly. The cut-outs are made of a single piece of paper and demand infinite patience and precision: indeed, if she makes the slightest mistake, she loses the entire piece!

The simplicity of the tools she uses and the subjects that she chooses perfectly align with her anti-consumerist and humanistic values. Her models come from all over the world and she specifically chooses subjects that enable her to question the relative notion of beauty, while also directing the spotlight onto modifications of the body and body-art. Today she is working with the organisation ""The Paper Artist"" that collaborates with organisations that support the emancipation of women. Curious about other people, she conceives of her canvases as an invitation to discover and create bridges in spite of differences.