Biography
Marianne Mari`?` (1982, FR) engages in a subversive dialogue between the female body and the history of art. Fascinated by statues, she embraces a form of agalmatophilia, a desire to animate stone through sensuality. Her works confront the coldness of marble with the vibrant flesh of her models: contemporary women who embody both their own individuality and reinterpreted classical archetypes. Venus, nursing Virgins, Madonnas, icons she desacralizes in order to restore their power, sovereignty, and humor. At the age of ten, after running away from home inspired by Truffaut’s The Wild Child, she knew she would become an artist to give shape to her fantasies. Since then, she has reclaimed public space through a liberating sense of pleasure, turning the female body into a sculptural, free, and active architecture.
A graduate of ENSAD Nancy and NCAD Dublin, she lives between Mulhouse and Strasbourg. Her transdisciplinary work—spanning photography, design, fashion, video, and music—has been exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris Photo, the Athens Biennale, and MO.CO. Panacée. Her Lamp-girls were shown by Nick Knight (SHOWstudio) and at the Palais Galliera. Guest of honor at the Valparaíso Festival, she has also held residencies in Berlin (Atelier Mondial) and Sarajevo (Drac Grand Est). Her work is part of both public and private collections and has been featured in artpress and The New York Times.
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Selections of solo exhibitions
2025 Se Faire Plaisir Curated with Mireille Blanc and Sandrine Wymann_ Kunsthalle Mulhouse / February - April
2024 Dirty Rains. Duo exhibition with Endre Tot
CEAAC (European Centre for Contemporary Artistic Actions) Curator: Alice Motard / Strasbourg / FR
2019 Filles de l'Est Lansdkrona Foto Festival / THE HIGHLIGHT OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN SCANDINAVIA Konsthalle, Curators: Christian Caujolle & Jenny Nordquist / Landskrona / SE
2019 Filles de l'Est La Filature / Scène Nationale
Curator: Emmanuelle Walter / Mulhouse / FR
2014 Silence, ?uvres ouvertes Marianne Mari? & les oeuvres des frères Baschet avec Thomas de Pourquery + musiciens & danseuses Concert / Performance / Chorégraphie / Exposition Curateur : Pierre Bal-Blanc / CAC Brétigny (Centre d' Art Contemporain de Brétigny-sur-Orge) / FR
2014 Rose Sarajevo Duplex 100m2 gallery
Curator: Pierre Courtin / Sarajevo / BIH
Selection of group exhibitions
2024 La République Cynique Curator: Pierre Bal-Blanc / Palais de Tokyo / Paris / FR Yougoslavie Ex-Yougoslavie Curator: Aurélia Marcadier / Festival Photo Saint-Germain / Paris / FR
2023 L'Homme et la Mer Curator: Rodrigo Gomez Rovira / Guilvinec / FR
2022 AU BONHEUR Curators: Alice Motard & Joël Riff / CEAAC, Strasbourg / FR
2022 WHEN I STAT THAT I AM AN ANARCHIST Curator: Pierre Bal-Blanc / PLATO Art Center, Ostrava / CZ
2019 TOUT EST DANS LE CABINET MENTAL Curators: Cassandre Langlois and Flora Bouteille / Le Crédac, Paris
2019 MO.CO. Live #3 Curator: Vincent Honoré
La Panacée, Musée d' Art Contemporain de Montpellier / FR
2018 Athens Biennale Curators: Stefanie Hessler, Kostis Stafylakis and Poka-Yio / Athens / GR
2018 SARAJEVO STORAGE National Gallery of BIH
Curator: Pierre Courtin / Sarajevo / BOSNIA
2014 Memory of the Violence - Dreams of the Future MSUV (Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina )/ Novi Sad / SRB Soleil Politique Museion (Museum of Contemporary Art) / Bolzano / IT Curator: Pierre Bal-Blanc
Awards, nominations, grants
2021 Prize with Special Mention for the photographic work produced during the popular uprising in Chile in 2019
2021 Photoforum Pasquart / Bienne / CH / curator: Danaé Panchaud
Collections
FRAC Bretagne
FRAC Limousin
private collections
Education:
2007 (National Higher Diploma in Plastic Expression) ENSA Nancy (National Higher School of Art of Nancy) / FR