Caroline Denervaud, based in France, challenges conventional notions of artistic expression through her unique practice that fuses dance and painting. Her work begins with the traces left by the body's movement and encompasses the entire process that culminates in a finished painting.

In this interview, we delve into the essence of her practice and explore the poetic world where body and painting intertwine.

The Starting Point of Art Guided by Movement

Whitestone Gallery Seoul

- What inspired your journey as an artist?

Denervaud: Movement. The fact that, through gesture and the body, one can say what often cannot be expressed in words. Through the practice of dance, I have come to understand that the body has a memory, and a way of expressing itself that is unique to each person's gestures but also to each person's history.

There is also something very simple, intrinsic in movement, walking, for example, that moves me. I seek this simplicity, this honesty/radicality both in performance, in movement and its trace, and also in the final work, which is often much more complex. I am often unconsciously guided by my emotions, perhaps also by a form of poetry. I'm also inspired by the unexpected and by transformation.

Studio 2024 Lara

- How did the idea of merging dance and art come about?

Denervaud: I have always danced. After an accident that made it impossible for me to continue, I shifted my interest into painting. I set movement and the expression it allowed, aside for ten years.

At a time in my life when my living space was also my studio, I would use the night to experiment with new ideas on large rolls of paper. I began working with the trace of movement and how to make it visible, filming the process. The night perhaps gave me the permission to return to dance, without being seen.

Later, I shared a few short videos on Instagram, always keeping my painting practice separate from my movement work. The two eventually came together naturally—the marks left by the body became far more expressive, raw, honest, and also surprising. They allowed me to begin a painting with a structure that felt like a dilemma, a question. The body of my work began to make sense.

For a few more years, only the paintings were exhibited.　Today, I see my work as beginning with the performance itself. My creative process is as important as the final paintings. Of course, the paintings are the culmination of the process, but I like the idea that the performance films, stills from these videos, or photographs of the traces are also visible. In the exhibition Still Moving, I chose to present traces, stills, paintings, and videos—all in the same format.

Whitestone Gallery Seoul

Exploring Expression through Materials and Colors

At the Studio 2022

- What materials and techniques do you use in your work?

Denervaud: For my performances and the traces of movement, I work on large lengths of linen or sometimes rolls of paper. It is more difficult to move on canvas because of its roughness, but it provides a solid base for the paintings. I draw with charcoal or chalk, sometimes with ink or pastel. The idea is to have on the surface, some hard fragments (pastel, charcoal, chalk) that the moving body can catch and crush. Ink, being more fluid, allows for strong marks on the canvas through the body's passage, but also on the clothing.

Once the trace has been left on the surface, I move on to what I call the painting phase. At this stage, the movement is no longer improvised, but the body remains immersed, due to the scale of the canvas and the fact that I often paint on the floor, standing on the canvas. I like to paint with casein, as it is a water-based medium with a texture somewhat similar to gouache. I mix it with pigments, which allows me to create my own colors and play with their

transparency or opacity. Sometimes I add a little acrylic or pastel, often to highlight an outline or increase contrast. I work with my hands and with brushes, preferably flat and wide.

Whitestone Gallery Seoul

- How do you choose your costumes and colours?

Denervaud: I choose clothing based on its shape or color. The shape can either constrain or facilitate movement and the body's freedom. I tend to choose dresses or skirts, but that is simply a personal preference. The material is also important—for example, wool or velvet catches on the linen, while cotton takes the imprint of the trace well. Colors also play a role, though more in relation to the image and the video. They can create contrast or not, or give a suggestion in relation to the tones of the future painting.

- What role does colour play in your creative process?

Denervaud: For the paintings, I never choose the colors in advance, it simply never works. I often begin with a color that feels easy or neutral to me, pink, for example. I have a lot of ease with pink in painting; it is a soft color that comforts me and, pictorially, allows me to set a middle tone and start painting without taking risks. Yellow is a color I use very little, as are black and white. In a composition, colors emerge one after the other, and I try to visualize how they interact with each other, whether in harmony or in tension, and how they transform the traces into something that is sometimes more volumetric, sometimes almost narrative, and sometimes into an uncontrolled abstraction.

Improvisation and Acceptance with Added Inspiration

Caroline Denervaud “never stop playing” 2022, 200 × 250 cm, mixed media on canvas

- Your art seems to rely heavily on improvisation. Do you follow any prior preparation or plan?

Denervaud: Working with movement in improvisation leaves room for chance, for the present moment, and for exploring "what needs to come out." What interests me in spontaneity is the unexpected. Of course, sometimes I am disappointed, sometimes I am not inspired. But I work on this point of acceptance, I don't start over. I may choose not to keep the trace, but if I do, I accept it as it is. This idea carries over into my painting practice as well.

Sometimes I also want to draw from an idea, a concept, or a phrase, to give a direction to my movement. For this exhibition, I selected a few lines from a poem by T.S. Eliot. These short phrases, taken out of their context, become almost abstract. I developed a palette of colors, key words, and sounds that the phrases inspired in me.

The Form Revealed by the Moment and the Completed Shape

Studio 2024 Lara 2

- For you, what is the difference between presenting the performance itself as the work, and presenting a completed painting as the work?

Denervaud: Painting is the culmination of an entire process that begins with a short filmed performance, followed by the trace, and finally the painting. The performance is raw, simple, it is the initiator, the process itself. I like that the performance/dance is ephemeral, but by filming it I can preserve its visual and moving trace. Sometimes, when I watch the recording of a performance, I appreciate its grace, its vulnerability, or even its madness. There is something spontaneous about it, a "one shot."

A painting can be exhibited on its own, viewed on its own. If I present the video of the performance, then the audience can more easily understand the initial creative process of the trace and then the painting. The difference lies in the fact that the painting is a completion, almost the "object," carrying within it the dance, the trace. The video, like a live performance, is much more vulnerable and fragile, more intimate, too. It takes courage to show this version, but in my work, I find that making visible what sparks the creation is both interesting and beautiful.

That said, I see the painting as the artwork, and the video maybe more as a documentation. Ideally, I would one day like the video image to have as much weight as the painting itself...

Whitestone Gallery Seoul

- What core themes or emotions do you aim to explore through your work?

Denervaud: Momentum, vulnerability, sensuality, chance, perhaps also a form of poetry. Everything related to the body, its way of expressing itself, of moving. Immersion is also a central theme in my work: the act of diving into the canvas, whether during the performance, the work on colors, or when viewing a finished painting. I also play with immersion as the body returns into the canvas.

I like that, once a painting is finished, by selecting specific clothing and poses, I can create the illusion that my body is entering the painting. The image of this immersion is often a still from a video. I like the idea that it comes full circle, that the body which, through movement, created the trace and then the painting, returns to inhabit it.

- What new forms of expression or projects would you like to explore in the future?

Denervaud: I am currently exploring a path that combines video and textiles, creating garments imbued with stills from videos and carrying the essence of a performance. I have always maintained a strong interest in clothing, and incorporating this aspect more prominently into my work would delight me. Having also studied fashion design, this would bring together my three passions: dance, painting, and fashion.

I would also very much like to explore the idea of reversing my creative process—choreographing and investigating how a sequence of movements might be traced not only by me but perhaps by different individuals. I am open to the idea of collaboration. And why not, one day, study this story in 3D, through sculpture.

Artist in Studio

Caroline Denervaud's work opens a new horizon in contemporary art by exploring the memory of the body and the possibilities of its expression. Integrating her three passions—dance, painting, and fashion—she continues to expand the boundaries of art through her relentless pursuit of new modes of creation. Her circular process, in which the traces left by the body become paintings and the body then reenters them, builds a singular artistic world that is uniquely her own.

CAROLINE DENERVAUD: Still Moving