IN CONVERSATION WITH CHARLOTTE COLBERT

interview by JANA LETONOJA

Acclaimed artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert is known for creating immersive worlds where surrealism, mythology, and contemporary culture collide. This spring, the internationally recognized artist will unveil Chasing Rainbows, a monumental two-site public installation across Manhattan’s Flatiron NoMad and Meatpacking District, marking her first major public art presentation in the United States. The project features two striking 30-foot steel sculptures designed to spark imagination and invite passersby to reconnect with wonder in shared public space. Alongside her visual art practice, Charlotte is an award-winning filmmaker whose debut feature She Will received critical acclaim from outlets including The New York Times. She has recently completed her second feature film, Becoming Capa. As she continues to expand her creative universe across sculpture, cinema, and installation, she invites audiences to reconsider the boundaries between imagination and reality.

Chasing Rainbows marks your first public art presentation in the United States. What does bringing this project to New York mean to you personally?

New York is such a mythical city. It evokes possibility, reinvention, adventure.  I’ve grown up mythologising its writers, characters, theatre, films, architecture. Being able to enter, even on a small level, a dialogue with the city is so exciting to me. 

The installation features monumental 30-foot sculptures placed in public spaces. How does scale influence the emotional experience you want audiences to have?

Surrealism aims to jolt you out of the status quo of your mind in order to bring a re-fresh in one’s perspective. The systems and structures we live in are just that, systems.  

The oversized scale of the pieces abstract them from accepted reality into a more fantastical and imagined space. And this sense of irreality, brings us back to our child like sense of looking at the world for a split second, questioning the line between real and imagined. 

Your work often explores imagination as something communal rather than private. Why is that idea important to you?

We’re creatures of language. We live in imagined structures. Everything around us was imagined by someone before it came into existence. This building, my trousers, our legal system. What we collectively imagine today becomes out reality tomorrow. There is nothing else. We have to imagine better. Corporate versions of the future we are being presented with are not facts. We can collectively imagine them differently.

What inspired the concept behind Chasing Rainbows?

The perpetual quest for where the sea meets the sky. 

How do you hope passersby, people who may not typically visit galleries, will engage with these sculptures?

I hope to facilitate chance encounters through these public sculptures, small sparks of connection among strangers in the middle of everyday life. When two unknowns meet, a world of possibility opens up.

Public art interacts with a city in a very different way than a museum installation. How did the New York environment shape the project?

It’s the city that never sleeps, the city of serendipity, curiosity. Everything about it makes it such a magical place to interact with. 

As both an artist and a filmmaker, do you see storytelling as the common thread connecting your work?

Yes, most definitely. Stories define who we are, as a culture, as individuals, and through the stories we tell our children. As a result, I am endlessly fascinated by history, psychoanalysis, fairy tales and archetypes. 

Your debut feature She Will was praised for its haunting visual language. How did your visual art background shape your filmmaking approach?

I think it helps free oneself and be forced to reinvent per project versus feeling things might be best done in a specific way or another. 

You’ve just wrapped your second film, Becoming Capa. What can you share about the story and its themes?

It’s with the wonderful Esther McGregor, Mark Eydelshteyn, Danny Huston, Rossy de Palma, Emily Carey and William Gao to name a few. It’s a love story set in the 1930s, a backdrop all too similar to today.  

Do you approach directing actors differently than you approach constructing an installation or sculpture?

I hope they would say so. It involves a lot more talking, writing and playing.

The Venice Biennale is another major stage for your work this year. How does preparing for such a global platform shape your thinking as an artist?

I am not sure yet, just trying to find time to do all normal things even at the moment. 

Looking ahead, what kind of worlds or ideas are you most excited to explore next in your art and filmmaking?

I am excited to find ways to be a tiny part in the big struggle to save ours.

TEAM CREDITS

talent CHARLOTTE COLBERT
photography TIMOTHY SCHENCK
interview JANA LETONJA
editor TIMOTEJ LETONJA