Virgile Ittah
2012
Virgile Ittah, 2nd prix
Born in 1981 in Paris, lives and works in London.
My research tackles taboo, marginal subjects little touched upon by the media, such as the
status of illegal workers and the representation of the dead body. Highlighting these kinds
of marginal subjects, my work explores various themes within the wider topic of personal
identity.
The state of constant passage and flux in which migrants exist forces them into a state of
being in which they are between two identities . This duality is the first of two areas I am
currently exploring through my art work. The second is the alteration of the body after the
death of the individual and the consequences of this changed state on the identity and to
the mind–body relationship.
The material choices I make and the processes I select are critical to my approach and to the
reading of the work ; they embody the subject and reflect entirely the desired atmosphere.
The artworks also have a more socio-political dimension and question the
viewer about the status of the illegal worker and Western society’s refusal to see the idea
of death as a finitude.
training/
2011/ 2013
MA, Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London
2009/ 2011
MA, Photography, Spéos, Paris
exhibitions/
‘Inspiring Matter’, Royal college of art, London, UK. 02-03/04/2012
‘Fair’, Edinburgh college of art, Edinburgh, UK. 23-28/02/2012
‘Interim show’, Royal college of art, London, UK. 09-17/0/2012
Galerie de Medicis, Paris 3ème 2009/2010
Galerie Aleph, Marseille, 2007/ 2008
Galerie Astarte, Paris 6ème 2006/2005
Opera Gallery, Spring street, New York, 2004
D.I.T, Aix en provence, 2004
ONU, Palace of Nations, Geneva, exhibition « Tabl’eaux », 2003
Espace Rachi, Paris 5ème, exhibition » Gynecée d’été « , 2003
Transart Express,Paris 17ème, exhibition » The death in art « , 2003
Galerie Art Cadre, Paris 5ème, 2002
Galerie Façade, Paris 3ème, 2002
D.I.T, Aix en Provence, 2002