The Controlled Origin Denomination Not born in 1960 in the newspaper Combat has always struggled to contain a crucible of designers from various streams (New Realism, Fluxus, Support / Surface) their fringes or beyond any marking. Raysse, do not say it already in 1965: "We were 3, here we are 10, we will be 300 in ten years." The uniqueness of Nivese is that it was and remains the only female artist to have participated in this wind of change which swept the seventies. But in this Latin paradise where art is monopolized by men, integration was not easy. Nivese is pretty, blonde and landed at Nice in 1973. A dog in a game of bowling or a keel in a dog game?
A childhood between Croatia and Belgium
For Nivese born Nivese Oscari Labin (Croatia), the arrival in Nice marked a return to the sun after the northern mists. "In 1947 we left the country for Belgium where I stayed from 3 to 24 years. It was a black period. " For in this promised land is more hard work than the earth, working in her womb awaits his father: "He was a farmer. When he saw mine, he wanted to leave. " Today the artist remembers hell Borinage: "Child, I went looking for him. I can still see him go up the face smeared with soot in an iron cage. An image that struck me. " One may wonder if its vertical iron cuts, recurrent in his work is not a resurgence of this "black youth". "Since this country frightens me. I go back to see my sister Dolores, actress and director who lives in Brussels, where it has just opened his own theater. " So when Nivese pack up in 1973 to the south, it is not luxury: "I need light, he had to get out of this darkness."
Nice, solar return
Under the sun, things start to smile. Nivese, who has just left her husband and former painter at twelve already copied van Gogh, integrates the Villa Arson: "I enrolled at the Fine Arts as a free student. Coming from a background where I bathed in art I passed the entrance exams without difficulty. " But so far it will not make the five years to 29 years leaving the fold of the school. "I did not want to hang out, I worked and exposed very quickly. My first piece dates from the Villa Arson. I was looking for me. I loved the mix sacred and profane as my ex-voto. I made collages as well. " A year in which she returned in 2009 and was the subject of an exhibition at the Malmaison in Cannes. But talk is talk Nivese men that mark its course. The young and attractive visual artist has no choice in entering the holy of holies of the Nice creation. His first contact with this circle where men burn the life from every angle will be with one of the pillars of the New Realism.
The school men
In 1974 Pope compression uses student. "Caesar came to the Villa Arson to find an assistant, he left with me. Because of its viral hepatitis he slept a lot and delegated me work as cutbacks in money I made in Morabito. " The meeting of Nivese Frédéric Altmann, the man of her life will be in 1977 in its gallery "The marginal art" when it defends the art and friends of the School of Nice. "She came and told me" you are not ashamed to show such crap? "Pointing to me a naive art canvas. She showed me her job was so I did not get to the ridicule, "says Frédéric Altmann. Instead our two lovebirds rant and continue to prolonged love in their apartment in the old Nice. Their best man was Yves Bayard, architect poet disappeared in 2008 who designed the MAMAC, TNN, the Library and its square head. "The first time I saw him, he followed me all day in the city. I entered the gallery of Frederick, I did kiss him, he said that we were together. But there was still nothing between us. Bayard was his best friend and he also became mine. He told me you will be my regret. " For Nivese turns heads. "From there to perceive it as an intriguing it is only a step," said Frederic Altman. "She was the only woman in the group, everyone was running after him. Since they do not dare to attack, they were attacking me. It was a very misogynist environment. " Nivese crystallizes passions for the worst but also the best, "Hans Hartung photographed one day my hair. I sat, suddenly he went to get his camera and said, "it makes me think of my work." Caesar's assistant also serves as a link between people of the School of Nice. "I presented Sosno for which I had parts in Bayard who did work in Porquerolles with Bernard Pagès'. Another man will soon take his defense. His critical talent made him the valuable ally of the new realists "Niki and I were pushed by Restany. He was a talented guy, but obsessed with sex. He did not hide. I remember being so embarrassed during a trip to Japan where we were invited with other artists when he presented our guests a list of sadomasochistic accessories he needed. These escapades were known. That said, I owe him a lot as Jacques Lepage. They opened the doors of the School of Nice. " For the heart of this heated atmosphere Nivese product and exhibits. Alexandre De La Salle offered him his first exhibition, Antonio Sapone took over in the 80 and organized a retrospective in its foundation in Italy.
The screens of the angel
The School of Nice was launched when Nivese invests the Bay of Angels. And if she did not participate in 1977 in the exhibition "About Nice" hanging rack Centre Pompidou (this earned him, they say, to see his work taken down MAMAC), it remains one of these free electrons that nourished the emancipation of this new wave. How many shots the show alongside Arman, César, Raymond Hains, Venet, Ben ... like an apparition, a "female bonding" crept into the Last Supper? "Rotraut, the widow of Yves Klein arrived later on Niki de Saint Phalle, she made only rare appearances in Nice." Thus Nivese was much the feminine part of this School of Nice, explains it in his book France Delville. His personality and his work testify. Cut paper she went to sculpture. "In 1996, 15 tons of steel Korea did not fear him," commented Frédéric Altmann. And even when it addresses these harsh materials, its scissors remain caresses made to matter. This share of sweetness still pregnant in the image of its folded sheets (1982-1986) who turn into weightless lace, became his signature. From his earliest works, made Nivese talk work feminine. Votives to summon the damn paraphernalia antique goods market. "One way to evoke the brothels of Pompeii Amsterdam way," she said, laughing. But it was his sister Dolores speaks best for his pledge: "With glue, with scissors, with paper, with color, with brushes, she built overwhelming fortresses. His hands child, but solid, like the standoff with the steel that women, she cut with a scalpel ... ".
... And drop shadow
Nivese, whose name means "snow", has the gift of lightness and depth of the Earth that shakes the armor, it updates the lures of the flat surface. And chance has no power: "There is a real groundwork made of folds and calculations, child already I was good at math." It is perhaps for this midwife real talent that Asia is infatuated with his work. She often exhibits, "more often than Nice" from a Korean came across in his studio. "In 1999 I was invited to Pusan in Korea for a symposium. I have installed a pyramid where a character pushes the red side which symbolizes the forbidden. When I made my speech I stressed the importance of democracy. They were pushing many to come in turn to his side. " The pyramids, Nivese - summoning triangle in the architecture of its towers its Miss Liberty (Statue of Liberty) - often addressed them. Bremen to Tokyo via Nice Arenas, they are there, joist, filtering the passing time as a sundial, kinetics when they recreate the movement of the rider arrhythmic full and empty. "This theme dear me coming, she says, a nightmare where I saw planes bomb the pyramids." An Apocalypse vision that the artist hastened to exorcise on plywood cut in 1989. Nivese, nomadic three nationalities (Croatian, Belgian and French) relates to through his works endowed with lightness, his fears, our fears, joys, our present, and if one can read between the lines, our future dreams. Nivese, the exiled learned to reconstruct the moment, it does not destroy, it is a natural builder. This is why it could be the real feminine face of the School of Nice. A face that has not finished to reveal its secrets!
