Exhibition/installation/performance by/with Louise Chardon – Igreja da Misericordia, Odemira

GRAVIDADE is an exhibition, and a performance-installation conceived and created by French artist Louise Chardon, based in the municipality of Odemira, Portugal.

This event features a series of human-size sculptures and several smaller formats, all created between 2024 and 2025.

Gravidade is not an exhibition in the traditional sense. It is an atmosphere, a sentient space, a living place, for alchemy and mutations. It invites us to feel and reflect on the notion of gravity, both in its physical sense—matter subject to the law of gravity—and in its metaphysical dimension—the solemn state of things. It also questions the notion of pregnancy, understood as a state of gestation of incarnation. In another interpretation, the term gravidade also evokes the irresistible feeling of gravitating towards something, a sense of inescapable attraction.

This artistic act is intended to be a space of openness and welcome for contemplation, where the subject unfolds at the intersection of vertical (the sacred and being) and horizontal (the synergy of the heart) axes. The works presented are not conceived as objects, but as sentient presences, made of skin (ancient fabrics), flesh (wax), bones (actual bones, plaster or wood), and hair (flax).

By your mere presence, you coexist and co-create, more or less consciously, with the artist and the sculptures themselves. As a witness, you can approach this space in a meditative, receptive, silent, or performative manner.

The experience offered is that of a sacred act, a religious act – in the etymological sense of the word religare -an act of connection, of union between the intimate and the transcendent, where art becomes a rite of communion.

By entering, you become a witness. By your mere presence, you participate in the alchemy of the place and the moment. Come in, penetrate, let yourself gravitate.

Louise Chardon develops her artistic identity through a profound relation to the embodied experience. Through drawing, sculpture, performance, and video, she explores the sensitive connections between soma and spyche, self-perception, and presence in the world. Her work is rooted in physical and emotional introspection, where the body becomes a subject of research and transformation.

Her works -performances, drawings, sculptures, and videos – are born from a deeply sensory and intuitive approach. She explores the invisible territories of the body and the subconscious, and seeks to connect the physical, emotional, and symbolic dimensions of being. Through her research, she develops a trans-disciplinary practice that she shares in artistic, educational, and therapeutic contexts.

Since 2018, she has lived and worked in the Odemira region (Portugal), where she founded the artistic hermitage A Mandorla in partnership with Luk Van den Dries.

GRAVIDADE is produced by A Mandorla, with the support of Três Sacadas, Mirabolante, A Sopa dos Artistas, and the Municipality of Odemira.