Born in 1964 in Grenoble, France
Lives and works in Paris, France

Véronique Joumard began her career in the mid-1980s. In 1987 she presented her work at the Villa Arson in Nice, and in 1991 she had one of her first solo exhibitions at the Galerie Anne de Villepoix in Paris. Two years later, her work was exhibited at the Consortium in Dijon, a structure which she worked with on several occasions, notably in 1998 for the realization of a public commission in Grancey-le-Château-Neuvelle as part of the New Sponsors program.

Véronique Joumard’s work was shown at the first edition of La Force de l’art (in Paris in 2006), and in 2008, the curator Claire le Restif presented a solo exhibition at the Crédac in Ivry-sur-Seine. In 2014, she exhibited at the Radar – Espace d’art actuel in Bayeux and responded to a public commission for stained glass windows for Bayeux Cathedral. In recent years, Véronique Joumard has carried out several public commissions in France, Italy and Japan, notably for the Setouchi Triennale for Takamatsu airport. The exhibition Véronique Joumard: To Telescope was presented at the Frac Normandie in 2016.

Véronique Joumard is interested in devices that make energy visible. By plugging blushing resistances directly into electrical outlets, or by placing light bulbs powered by steel blocks (in particular) in space, she determines forms that are at once naked, fragile and dangerous, and that interact intensely with the visitor. This will to question the modes of appearance of the energy can testify of the filiation of this work with the minimal art which also integrates in the work the process of production of the image. «I like the idea of making visible both the light itself and the elements necessary for its appearance, says the artist, it is undoubtedly a way of talking about the work and its components. But it is also a way of establishing the works in space, as a visible junction (1)».

Through her devices, her installations and her paintings, Véronique Joumard sends the visitor back to his real space by inviting him to physically experience his environment. Constantly enriching her artistic vocabulary, she integrates into her work specific elements such as mirrors or «active» paintings with particular characteristics (thermosensitive, magnetic, slates, etc.), which bring a physical relationship to the work.

«Véronique Joumard’s research is related to the observation of phenomena, of facts perceived by the senses or the conscience. In this process, the choice of objects, the search for materials and their experimentation, play an important role. Their unstable and changing nature testifies to the duality of the world. The perception of a tension, which proceeds from a contrast, gives rise to an awareness. This reveals the links that unite elements that are nevertheless contradictory (2)».

1. Véronique Joumard, interview with Sabine Schaschl-Cooper, catalog of the exhibition Early Birds, Kunsthaus Basel, 2004. 2 Laurence Dalloz, press release for the exhibition Magnet, jaune, fluo, etc. at the Villa du Parc, Annemasse, 2011.