Eden
Marie Le Moigne
This project aims to explore the concept of intimacy. The idea is to invite the viewer to enter a mysterious world where landscapes, the geography of the body, and personal stories meet. The notion of the "Garden of Eden" evokes a private and hidden space, an inner world. REVEALING THE INVISIBLE through the appearance of the body. EVOKING EMOTION: melancholic or nostalgic sensation. The images are like open windows to inner worlds. HIGHLIGHTING DUALITY: The project explores the duality between the public and the private, the exterior and the interior, the visible and the invisible, nature and the bare body. This duality is achieved through visual juxtapositions. The large vertical format shows the intimate, the body, while the small framed format reveals outdoor landscapes. The visual reversal is created by this change in scale. The intimate becomes landscape, and the landscape becomes intimate. CREATING A NEW NARRATIVITY This series is a continuation of my previous photographic works. Indeed, the female body is omnipresent in my images. Intimate territories show bodily clues, fragments of enigmas, an inner geography. Female delirium is associated with the concept of hysteria. Dream and reality blend. In an atmosphere between confinement and external wanderings, a female character inhabits the timeless space. The wait. Time is suspended. It is a sort of public diary. I seek to create a poetic and timeless universe while questioning societal issues. I am greatly inspired by the novels of Marguerite Duras where the characters are disconnected from societal ties. Imbued with abstraction, the characters exist in indefinite temporalities, almost like ghosts. The title "Eden" arose from my desire to symbolize a place of serenity and mystery, where intimacy is fully manifested. I wanted this word to evoke a sort of sanctuary, a space that is both personal and universal, where viewers can lose and find themselves. My black-and-white photographs play with contrasts and nuances to reveal fragments of this hidden space, inviting introspective and poetic exploration. "Eden" perfectly encapsulates this duality of protection and revelation, reflecting my intention to create a dialogue between the visible and the invisible, the tangible and the imaginary. "Eden" is a metaphor for origin, creation, and the connection between nature and the body. This idea of an "original paradise" allows me to delve into an exploration of intimacy as a quest for inner truth. The biblical aspect, recurrent in my creations, serves as a symbolic framework to address a theme dear to me, such as the search for self. I sought to reveal intimacy through a sacred and natural lens, where the body simultaneously becomes a space and a landscape. In my works, the body is presented as both a sanctuary and a place of contemplation and transformation. This exposition of the body refers to a native state, prior to modesty and the scars of existence. Thus, the body harmoniously integrates with the landscape, while nature extends to become a continuation of the body.
Marie Le Moigne is a visual artist and a design teacher. She holds a Master's degree in Fine Arts, Visuals, and Space from ERG in Brussels. Her artistic practice and work explore the dialogues that can be established between visual arts and literature. Additionally, she engages and reflects on societal issues such as feminism, the body, memory, etc., through publications in various art and design journals. In 2022, she exhibited her work at Paris 8 and at the Giardi Gallery during the Saint-Étienne Design Biennial. In 2023, her photographic series "Through the Looking-Glass I and II" is being exhibited at the contemporary art event "Les Rencontres d'Aubergine" in Villeneuve les Avignon and then at Nuit Blanche in Paris (City Hall of the 19th arrondissement and Buttes Chaumont). Recently, she exhibited in Berlin and in Beijing, China. In early 2024, she exhibits in group exhibitions in Paris/Vincennes, Rome, Boston, San Diego and Auckland. Recently, she published her first photo book « Eden » with Corridor Elephant editions.