Joëlle Morosoli is a Quebec artist who was born in Strasbourg, France, of French and Swiss descent. Her work is essentially sculptural, taking the form either of installations or of architecturally integrated art in public buildings. Most of her works have moving parts, driven by mechanical systems.
Born of a French mother, Gisèle Talbot, and a Swiss father, Erwin Morosoli, Joëlle immigrated to Quebec with her family in 1961. She met Swiss-born biogenetics professor and researcher Rolf Morosoli who, very early in their relationship, participated in her artistic production. Alongside his professional scientific research, he collaborated with the artist in designing the technical and mechanical aspects of her installations, sculptures, murals, and architecturally integrated works.
Morosoli completed a bachelor’s degree in visual arts at Laval University in Quebec City in 1975. In 1997, she moved to Paris where she undertook doctoral studies at Paris 8 University under the supervision of Edmond Couchot, and obtained her doctorate in aesthetics and science and technology in the arts with her thesis L'installation en mouvement: une esthétique de la violence (The installation in motion: an aesthetics of violence) in 2002.
On her return to Quebec, she took part in numerous group and solo exhibitions. Many of her projects are produced as part of the government’s policy of integrating art into architecture.
In 2004, Joëlle married Rolf Morosoli in Montreal, where she lives. She has taught at Cégep de Saint-Laurent (college) since 1998.
Artistic approach
Morosoli began using movement as a kind of material very early in her career. Employing irregular, cyclical motions, whether slow or erratic, and playing on light and shadow, she strives to give shape to movement and to provoke emotion. Spectators are invited to stroll through the installation and to catch the interplay between movement in the work and their own. Activated by electric motors, the sculptures’ constant transformation changes one’s perception of space and of the work itself. Spectators must therefore take position with respect to the work and the space, while adapting their movement to that of the installation.
"(Morosoli's sculptures) stylize certain movements observed in plant, animal and aquatic worlds... to express the world of the subconscious, wherein threatening emotional energies lie buried..."
Whereas movement in kinetic sculptures like mobiles often originates from a natural source, such as wind or water, Morosoli equips each sculpture or installational element with a small motor that generates an even, often barely perceptible rhythmical motion. These movements will suddenly reveal new colours or forms, and sometimes reconfigure the entire work. Spectators move freely through the installations, witnessing the changes, while the slowness of the transformation creates a state of tension, of discovery and expectancy.
Her architecturally-integrated work conjures natural forms and movement. The breadth of the movements, the rhythms, and the resulting changes in form and colour manage to suggest a range of emotions.
Main works
Joëlle Morosoli has presented more than thirty solo exhibitions throughout Canada and Quebec. She was also invited to take part in major group exhibitions at such venues as the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. In 2002, she was selected to represent Quebec at ArtCanal, part of Expo.02 in Switzerland.
She has more than twenty public artworks to her credit, including the Palais des Congrès in Gatineau, Centre Mère-Enfant in Quebec City, and Centre d’hébergement Roland-Leclerc in Trois-Rivières.
Other activities
Morosoli is also a writer. Her first novel, Le sablier de l'angoisse, won second prize for the 1986 Prix Robert-Cliche. She also published Le ressac des ombres, in 1988, and a collection of poetry Traînée rouge dans un soleil de lait in 1984.
She co-founded the art journal Espace, for which she was assistant editor from 1987 to 1997. She teaches visual art at Cégep de Saint-Laurent where she also coordinates the visual arts and art history department.
