Rose de la Riva

Lancement — conjonctures céréalières
Thursday March 12, 6pm
Launch

This publication explores, through text and images, various materialities relating to the figure of the witch and its rural roots. With this bilingual project, visual artist and performer Rose de la Riva showcases the historical and iconographic research work she undertook for her exhibition conjonctures céréalières.

In a free-form essay, her writing focuses on the history of European witchcraft from the 16th to the 19th centuries and discusses beliefs from a time when demons and witches posed a daily threat to the reproductive forces of poor and superstitious peasants. The devil could reveal itself both in the loaf of bread or in the hollow of a rock.

The book displays a vast collection of gleaned images. Pictorial representations, archival fragments, photos of artifacts and folkloric customs have been collected by the artist. This sequence of images falls under the following headings: crops; ergot; broom; beer; bread; metal; candles; folklore; demons.