Camille Orso Caël
°1990, Metz (FR) – lives and works in Brussels (BE)
The work of Camille Orso Caël (previously Camille Picquot) is situated at the intersection of the visible and the invisible, where reality and imagination meet. Through series of photos and films, they play with the dynamics between fiction and documentary. They intertwine the two, creating a story in which you never know what is true and what is not.
Camille Orso Caël presents their photos in series that gradually develop from photographic experiments, spontaneous snapshots, staged images, and as a reflection on the text they write about and with these images. It is difficult to conceptualise the development of these series. Some of their images arise autonomously while others are carefully constructed. It is only after there is a large number of images that Picquot brings them together. Then they rethink what the images mean, how they form a whole, and what is missing from that whole.
Camille Orso Caël - Eye ball, from the series Salut soleil (qui sait mourir), 2011 – 2021
Camille Orso Caël - Bird & water, from the series Salut soleil (qui sait mourir), 2011 – 2021
Camille Orso Caël - Quatre Mains, l from the series Salut soleil (qui sait mourir), 2011 – 2021
Camille Orso Caël - Slumber, from the series Salut soleil (qui sait mourir), 2011 – 2021
Camille Orso Caël - Modern Smoker, from the series Salut soleil (qui sait mourir), 2011 – 2021
Camille Orso Caël describes their practice as a centripetal force. Some artists start very small and then work towards a larger whole; Orso works in the opposite direction: they begin very broadly and then gradually zooms in until only a few images remain as a series. Some of the images they make are created without much thought. Other images are made more consciously, but Orso always leaves room for coincidence. As a result, the viewer feels the tension between the documentary and fictional elements, between the spontaneous and the staged.
Camille Orso - No fear, from the series Domestic Flight, 2014 – 2018
Camille Orso - Dôme orange, from the series Domestic Flight, 2014 – 2018
Camille Orso - Wrong, from the series Domestic Flight, 2014 – 2018
Camille Orso - Untitled, from the series Total Ground, 2016 – 2018
Camille Orso - Untitled, from the series Total Ground, 2016 – 2018
Camille Orso Caël has shown their work at FOMU, Antwerp; De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam; Wiels, Brussels; Marres, Maastricht; Artagon II, Paris; Été78, Brussels; and KIOSK, Ghent. Their first film was awarded a VAF wildcard, their second film just premiered in the official selection of the IFFR in Rotterdam.
