Elise Mazac and Robert Drowilal have formed the duo Mazaccio & Drowilal since 2009. Their work embraces a multitude of images gleaned from the media, which they hijack and combine to create series that are both striking and incisive.
For ART ROTTERDAM, they present their series entitled «Identikit». This term, a contraction of the words «identity» and «kit», has two meanings: on the one hand, it evokes the «composite portrait», a representation of an individual composed by gathering descriptions provided by witnesses during an investigation. On the other, it is used to describe something clichéd or standardized in the extreme.
This series explores the close link between identification with media images and the construction of identity. Initially, the artists collected testimonies from friends and followers of similarities, more or less subjective, between Elise Mazaccio and media personalities who populate our collective imagination through pictures coming from television series, red- carpet moments and various artistic representations. Then, using the portraits of the people or characters mentioned, they sought to establish the best possible correspondences with photographs of Elise taken in the course of her daily life over a period of around ten years.
This artistic approach explores how our perception of media images shapes and influences the construction of our own identity.