Marianne Villière
I will be residing in New York from July to December 2025 and look forward to making new connections. My studio will be located in Brooklyn, and I hope it becomes a space that welcomes fresh perspectives.
Born in 1989 in Nancy, France.
After completing a Master’s degree at ENSAD Nancy, I graduated from the CCC Master’s program in Critical Theory at HEAD Geneva. I was honored to receive the Gianni Motti Prize in 2014 and the Edward Steichen Award in 2024.
My artistic approach focuses on finding tipping points in shared spaces, aiming to invert power dynamics and highlight marginalized aspects or biodiversity. This leads me to create contextual and ephemeral situational compositions. My interventions, while subtle, offer a dual interpretation. At first glance, the gesture may appear humorous, light-hearted, or even superficial, only to confront us more deeply upon further reflection.
Education
2014 – Research-based Masters, Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), Switzerland
Graduated with honors
Thesis: Hiatus, un regard sur les micro-pratiques urbaines comme pratiques de liberté [Hiatus: An examination of urban micro-practices as exercises in freedom] (in French)
2012 – Masters, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art et Design (ENSA), Nancy, France
Graduated with honors
Thesis: Articulations d’espace [Articulations of space]
Solo Shows
2024
● A nos promesses, Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy, Fr.
(To our promises)
2023
● Alouette, gentille alouette, MUZOO, Chaux de Fonds, Ch. (Lark, gentle lark)
● Manifestation de bonnes volontés, Emmaüs Scherviller, Fr. (Demonstration of goodwill)
● Ritournelles – Nanterre White Night, Fr. (Refrains)
● cabane, Maison d’en Face, Fr. (hut)
● Je suis une émeute – Festival Toutes nos voix, Xirocourt, Fr. (I am a riot – All Our Voices Festival)
Group Exhibitions
2024
● Et si ça changeait ?, La Serre, Fr. (What if it changed?)
● Ces jours terrestres, Galerie Commune, Genève, Ch. (These earthly days)
2023
● Parcours, Reims, Fr. (Journey)
● À nos promesses, urban encounters of Nancy, Fr. (To our promises)
● des nuées, PNR Haut Languedoc, Fr. (swarms)
2022
● Mascarades et Libertés, MAT, Ancenis, Fr. (Masquerades and Freedoms)
● des nuées, Annecy Paysage, Le Mikado, Annecy, Fr. (swarms)
● À l’orée du foyer, Guyancourt, Fr.
● Exposition-Forum « Nous y sommes » Faux Mouvement, Metz, Fr. (Exhibition-Forum « Here we are »)
● Entre-Corps, Puzzle, Espace Jacques Brel, FRAC Lorraine, Thionville, Fr. (Between-Bodies)
2021
● Le dos au sol, Luxembourg, Lu. (Back to the ground)
● Dormir à la belle étoile sur un lit de galet, DOC, Paris, Fr. (Sleeping under the stars on a pebble bed)
● Bisou bisou, Maison Vide, Crugny,Fr.
● Countryside party, CAC Synagogue Delme, Fr.
2019
● Science-Friction MyMonkey, Nancy, Fr.
● Weaving a road Home, the Cube space, Taipei, Twn.
● Pieds dans l’eau, Castel Coucou, Forbach, Fr. (Feet in the water)
● Alouette, gentille alouette, territoire#4 OpenSpace, Nancy, Fr. (Lark, gentle lark)
● Cherry Pickers, Luxembourg, Lu.
2018
● Opere destitorum, ENSA Nancy, Fr.
2017
● Brouhaha/ Et toujours ils tiennent le monde, Galerie du Granit, Belfort, Fr.
(Brouhaha/ And still they hold the world)
● Jet Lag/out of sync.Triennale Jeune Création, Les Rotondes, Luxembourg, Lu.
2016
● Generosity, XPO Gallery, Paris, Fr.
● Four musical, Caravane Tighmert Residency/Festival, Morocco. (Musical oven)
2014
● Emergency, Fonderie Kügler, Genève, Ch.
Workshops
2024
● Banners, avec Mickaël Roy, Emmaüs Grand Est, Fr.
● Metamorphosing public space, Mobilier National, La Terrasse, Nanterre, Fr.
● Genius of places, Nanterre, Fr.
2023
● Arpentages, Château Salins, Fr. (Surveys)
● des nuées, various locations in France and Switzerland. (swarms)
2022
● des nuées, various locations in France. (swarms)
● jokers, le MAT – Ancenis, Fr.
2021
● Escape, artistes plasticiens au lycée, Association Juste Ici, Besançon, Fr.
(Visual artists at high school)
● Faire la ville avec les artistes, Les escales improbables de Montréal Art & urbanisme, la Sorbonne / in vivo Québec & France. (Making the city with artists)
2019
● Anti-anti-sites semaine « Pre-Care » ENSAB Rennes, Fr.
2018
● A letter to yourself, Cercle Cité, Luxembourg, Lu.
● Fresco, educational workshop, Galerie du Granit, Belfort, Fr.
2017
● THE IDIOT, a critical and sensorial posture, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art et de Design, Nancy.
Residencies
2025
● Fructôse « Marée Montante », Dunkerque, Fr. (Rising Tide)
● Tétrodon, Martigues, Fr.
2024
● Neïmenster, Luxembourg, Lu.
● Écritures alternatives en recherche, Bergerie de Villarceaux, Fr.
(Alternative writings in research)
2023
● Kulturfabrik, Esch-sur-Alzette, Lu.
● Villa Numa, Chaux de Fond, Ch.
● Emmaculture, Scherwiller, Fr.
2022
● « À la croisée des chemins » Parcs Naturels Régionaux d’Auvergne-Rhône Alpes, DRAC, CNRS, Fr (At the crossroads)
● au Maquis, Zutique, Dijon, Fr. (In the Maquis)
● Réseau Altitudes (online) (Altitudes Network)
● Zumu Museum, Nahariya, Il.
● Utopiana, Genève, Ch.
● In vitro, Thionville, Fr.
2021
● City of Guyancourt, Fr.
● Geography of the sensible, Maison Vide, Crugny, Fr.
2020
● Be mobile create together IKSV, Istanbul, Tr.
2019
● Dominique Lang Dudelange, Lu.
● Tree Tree Tree Person Taroko, Taïwan
2018
● Casa Giap « En (auto)defensa de las Jirafas: Artes y Resistencias desde Chiapas », San Cristobal, Mx. (In (self)defense of Giraffes: Arts and Resistances from Chiapas)
● Château Éphémère, Carrières-sous-Poissy, France
2017
● « Art and Territory » residency, Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg, Fr.
2016
● Caravane Tighmert festival residency, Tighmert, Morocco.
About +++
Here we might mention the performances of Marianne Villière, which, like Garfinkel’s “disruptive experiments” [2007, pp. 97–147; Pecqueux, 2012c] are a direct examination of our routines. One cannot but be arrested (forced to do a sensorial double-take) when one sees her and her accomplices enact a “meaningless queue” facing a wall (Nancy, 2010; Besançon, 2011), or when she installs a sitcom laugh-track in the Paris metro (2011) and in an art gallery (2012). One is made to understand that an ecology of attention implies economy, and vice-versa: the two are but different sides of the same coin, which one must tackle head-on.
Anthony Pecqueux, in “Tordre l’attention. Ajustements perceptifs en situation. Partie : L’économie éthique et esthétique de l’attention” [Twisting attention: In-situ perceptive adjustments. Section: Ethical and aesthetic economy of attention]. L’économie de l’attention – Nouvel horizon du capitalisme ? [The Economy of Attention – New Horizon of Capitalism?] Dir. Yves Citton, Paris: La Découverte, 2014. p.228
Marianne Villière engages in a highly articulate reflection on the artist’s place in society, public space, and the process of legitimation that validates or discredits practices with respect to different value systems. In an extension of the practices of Andrea Fraser—but taking the risk of working outside the field of art—or, perhaps more aptly, Ben Kinmont, Marianne Villière undertakes a subtle interrogation of the instability and random character of art value systems and cultural systems.
Sébastien Pluot: professor of art history and theory at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-arts-Tours Angers-Le Mans (Angers campus); chief researcher, co-founder and director of Art by Translation; independent curator