Background
Iseult Labote (born Vanna Karamaounas) was born on May 5, 1959 in Geneva, Switzerland. She was raised in Greece.
Iseult Labote (born Vanna Karamaounas) was born on May 5, 1959 in Geneva, Switzerland. She was raised in Greece.
Iseult Labote studied art history and political science at the University of Geneva from 1979 to 1984. Labote also made several study trips abroad: she stayed in Athens, Florence, Rome, Moscow, New York and Singapore.
From the 1990s, she made photographic paintings and exhibited her first works under the name Iseult Labote.
She made several trips to Asia, Europe and the United States.
Iseult Labote’s photographs, created without any artificial intervention or staged set-up, explore the aesthetic of the contemporary industrial world. In the heart of transit locations, construction sites, warehouses, factories - locations permeated by temporality - the artist guides her attention towards the feeling of intense presence, which emanates from them. By freezing the materials, structures, and surfaces, Labote finds and brings forth the hidden poetry and sensuality stemming from abandonment and destruction.
Iseult Labote lives and works in Geneva and Berlin.
Iseult Labote is best known for her works "Urbanus VI" and "September 11th". Besides, Labote’s photographs are included in private and public collections in Switzerland, France, Italy, Greece, and the United States, including Fonds Cantonal d’Art Contemporain (FCAC), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MAMCO); Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva; the Greek National Bank; and the Contemporary Museum of Thessalonica, SMCA (State Museum of Contemporary Art), among others.
