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Where is the boundary between art and life itself? This question recurs throughout the work of Madeleine Elisabeth Peccoux (1998). The artist explores the points of contact and lines of separation between fiction and reality, labour and leisure, present and future, and between who one is and who one would like to be. There are no straightforward answers; Peccoux therefore presents the questions that emerge from these oppositions to the viewer through her texts, photographs, performances and installations.
After graduating from art school, Peccoux worked as a barista. She no longer had a studio, lost contact with friends from the art world, and felt isolated. Was she still an artist? To examine the nature of her practice and to find answers to these existential questions, she bought a fake pregnant belly, known as a ‘moonbump’. She occasionally had herself photographed wearing it at various professional photographic studios, thereby placing the relationship between artist and photographer, and between fiction and reality, under tension. Later, she sometimes wore the moonbump throughout the entire day, and her short performances gradually became daily routine.
Peccoux was searching for a sense of mission in life and found a point of departure in the idea that parenthood confers a certain legitimacy. This also raised questions about motherhood and the inevitable choices associated with it. Moonbump (2022-ongoing) is a compilation of photographs from the past four years – a series in which only the face reveals the passing of time.
Written by: Esther Darley