Alexandra Pouzet was born in Poitiers in 1975 and grew up in the countryside (north of Vienne, 86), mixing the local dialect with French and rural with urban energies.
She studied modern literature, then worked in radio, talking about ecology and poetry, giving voice to the people of the land. At some point, she took up photography in evening classes at the Beaux-Arts, followed by a tour of France with a polaroid camera and a taste for surrealism (Les veines du temps - 2009-12, with the poet Alain-Pierre Pillet). One series follows another. The question of inhabiting, a body, a house, a floor.
Being inhabited by forces, history and places. She works with people and reflects with them on inhabiting experiences, on the human condition. In 2009, the Frac Poitou-Charentes acquired the whole of Nature humaine, and the B.N.F a folio of her Carte du tendre, which was exhibited in 2017. Her taste for situated gestures, unconventional know-how, raw forms and vernacular ways of doing things has been honed through encounters.
Since 2016, she has been working with anthropologist Bruno Almosnino. With him, she looks at our attachments to objects, the sacred part that binds us to them (Medium - 2018, Presque René Montagne - 2021-23), the end of pastoralism, the reclaiming of the land (Poun naou - 2018-22), what vibrates with spirit in what we usually consider to be inert things (Terrain.s - 2017-21, with Roger Rousseau). They exhibit in art centres and museums, found the Arts Pauvres publishing house, perform and activate images and words in a variety of ways.
For several years now, Alexandra Pouzet has been interested in objects from folk arts and traditions, whose artistic dimension and the images they release or conjure up have led her to work on unconscious rural forms. Her practice is increasingly 'sculptural', seeking to express not finite worlds but a continuous present.