Sylvie Fleury: ‘My work is about freedom’

Sylvie Fleury’s multi-media approach embodies an irreverence towards materials, conventions, and codes: paintings are driven into and dented, a lowrider smashes cosmetics under its bouncing whitewalls, and, in the film Cristal Custom Commando, so-called ‘she-devils on wheels’ take aim at Chanel bags, riddling them with bullet holes.

Video, sculpture, readymades, photography – Sylvie Fleury has produced a seductive body of work since the early 1990s. In this episode of ‘Meet the artist’, she reflects on her early days and inspirations, from starting a gallery in Geneva and the idea that it’s artworks, not artists, that have had the biggest influence on her work. Ultimately, she very much sees her practice as being about liberation. ‘Or at least,’ she says in the film, ‘it's trying to give a sense of freedom and get rid of the guilt that some more moralistic approach can bring.’

‘Sylvie Fleury. S.F.’ is on view at Sprüth Magers, London through November 4, 2023.

Sylvie Fleury is represented by Sprüth Magers (Berlin, London, Los Angeles), Thaddaeus Ropac (London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul), Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai), Karma International (Zurich), and Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin).

Director and Producer: Adrian Kelterborn
Director of Photography: Francesco Bruce Battaglia
2nd Camera: Charlotte Trigari Dalschaert
Sound Engineer, Sound Design, and Mix: Jeroen Van Vulpen
Editor: Genevieve Chanel Mathis
Production Company: Prismago Ltd., Basel, Switzerland

Commissioned by Alicia Reuter & Jeanne-Salomé Rochat for Art Basel