IKAM Catherine

Catherine IKAM is a French visual artist, born in 1945. She is considered as one of the precursor artists in the field of video and virtual image. She explores the concept of identity in the electronic age in the field of new media and digital art. More particularly, she works on the themes of identity and appearance.

Catherine Ikam examines the relationships and interactions between the living and the artificial, the human and the virtual model. Since 1990, she has collaborated with Louis Fléri.

In 1980, she created at the Musée National d’Art Moderne du Centre Georges Pompidou, a journey on the theme of identity, an itinerary through the accidents of the representation of the self.

Catherine Ikam was a Research Fellow at Massachussett’s Institute of Technology, devoted to new technologies.

She was co-author of a video opera Valis, co-produced by IRCAM and the Musée National d’Art Moderne for the 10th anniversary of the Centre Georges Pompidou.

She received the Arcimboldo 2000 prize for digital creation and her works are widely presented in France and abroad. Catherine Ikam realized Digital Diaries during an invitation to the Studio National des Arts Contemporains du Fresnoy for the year 2005/2006.

She was promoted to the rank of Officer of Arts and Letters in January 2010 and  Chevalier of the Legion of Honor on July 14, 2019.

Exhibitions

The Banff Centre in Canada (1998) and the Ars Electronica Center in Linz (2000) have invited Catherine Ikam. She was the guest of honor of the Opline Prize for Contemporary Art for the year 2014 after Villéglé, Opalka and Orlan.

The Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris devoted a retrospective to her in 2007. She is the guest of the Arts Center of Enghien-les-Bains in the Val-d’Oise in September 2016.