HYBRID CREATURES AND PLURAL IDENTITIES: THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PRACTICE OF CAROLINE ACHAINTRE

| by Barbara Pavan |

Born in France in 1969, Caroline Achaintre grew up in Germany and currently lives in the United Kingdom. She attended the Kunsthochschule in Halle before continuing her studies at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths University of London. This multiplicity of cultural and academic contexts has significantly enriched her personal background and imaginative universe, although, as the artist herself remarks, it remains difficult to determine precisely how these experiences have translated into direct influences on her artistic research.

“I left France when I was very young,” she explains, “but I still feel a strong emotional connection to the country, which is why I’m particularly pleased to have exhibited there frequently in recent years. I think France has a very interesting contemporary art scene. Germany is home, but when I began making art in 1998, I moved to the United Kingdom, where the art scene at the time felt more playful, eccentric, and fresh.

Things have changed a lot since then: in Germany today there is a broader interest in the entire creative process, not just in the logical sequence of reason–cause–effect. I have always been an Anglophile, probably also because of the British punk and new wave music scene that I loved as a teenager.”

FULL ARTICLE IS INCLUDED IN ATLAS – CHAPTER ONE, AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT WWW.AL3VIEATC.COM/SHOP/ATLAS-CAPITOLO-UNO/ OR BY CLICKING ON THE COVER