Satellite Voices

Paris

Rosa Stockmann

June 25

Meet the Parisian artist exploring the junctions of fashion and religious representation

• Text by Terence Teh

After an art school background, the Rosa Stockmann persona was created by the French artist in 2010 to develop a series of fictitious photos that lead wth the motto, "The Hat, The Black Suit, The Chihuahua". The resultant series of self-described absurd and phantasmagoric work is also influenced by the question of Jewish identity and cultural and religious representation. It's an interesting staging of face value ideas to be explored.

Satellite Voices: How would you introduce your work?
Rosa Stockmann: My photographic work is a true plastic process, self-fiction, where I stage myself. I interpret all my sides, half-heroÏne, half-stereotype. I don't limit myself to one genre. I can be a rabbi loubavitch or a warrior princess... often strange to the limit of absurdity.

SV: What artists in Paris are doing it big for you right now?
Rosa Stockmann: I like the musician Yom & the Wonder Rabbis who reinterpret the klezmer music and the writer Olivier Benyahya whose novel "Dexies & Dolly" includes one of my rabbi's pictures on their cover.

SV: Where do you live in Paris and what inspires you about that area of town?
Rosa Stockmann: I've moved many times through Paris. I've wandered into the 19th of the Stalingrad 80s, the 11th before bohême and now, I'm located between the13th and the 5th - the Rive Gauche, in the heart of the city. I'm close to Jardin des Plantes and  Rue Mouffetard. It feels very Parisian, it's pretty quiet and chic.

SV: What are some of your hidden city spots?
Rosa Stockmann: New hidden city spots in Paris are very hard to find. But there are some quiets places such as the Dog area in the Jardin du Luxembourg, where I can stroll with my chihuahua, the independent movie theater La Clef, or go for a walk on Pont-Marie and have a drink at café Rally Tournelle, right in front of île Saint-Louis.

SV: What does your city mean to you?
Rosa Stockmann: I love Paris, I 'll never move from here. There is everything, the best exhibitions, creativity, culture… but it's very hard to relax, sometimes Paris makes me feel melancholic.

SV: What does Paris have that you can't find anywhere else?
Rosa Stockmann: Freedom, terrasse de café, cinema, bookselling, Haussmann style buildings. Everything.