Laurence Broydé
Laurence Broydé’s body of work—comprising paintings and sculptures—transforms both spaces and our perspectives. Her textile sculptures metamorphose bodies, setting aside questions of species, gender, and their representations. They are contextualized within immersive environments that invite the public to appropriate or reappropriate the exhibition space as a shared space—one that has been repurposed and reimagined—by activating aesthetic processes. Her installations shift between media in a constant back-and-forth of plastic forms—from painting to crocheted or clay sculpture—and reappropriate and dissect our contemporary fantasies, blending dystopian fables with real or fictional narratives about the resistance and resilience of living beings.
Her work draws inspiration from environmentalist and ecofeminist struggles: the strategies they employ in their acts of resistance, their interactions with their environment, their knowledge, and their political and decolonial visions in the face of the climate and geopolitical crises. Her research focuses on ecofeminism as ecological reclamation, territory as a shared space, transformation as a possible escape, and the wild as a means of reclaiming freedom(s) and resources.
During this residency, Broydé hopes to expand her research on collaborative and reciprocal approaches, particularly in agroecology and permaculture, drawing inspiration from the three principles of the ecofeminist concept RECLAIM: repair, regeneration, and creation. She is particularly interested in the movement of Indigenous women in North America, whose struggles are intersectional and decolonial and who face a multitude of forms of discrimination; notably Anishinaabeg women, who are particularly concerned about water contamination given their spiritual and identity-based connections to water and Mother Earth. Her artistic exploration will draw on the stories of struggle and action she has gathered, as well as the practices and knowledge of Anishinaabeg women, by examining the spiritual and identity-based connections they maintain with this resource.
She will create sculptures that serve as purifying filters made of clay and colloidal silver, as well as bas-reliefs combining paint and crocheted wool, evoking collaborations with non-humans and remarkable, nonviolent ecofeminist actions and gestures from history. She will highlight the connections between life-affirming, virtuous practices across cultures and continents.
Biography
Laurence Broydé is a French artist who lives and works on Groix Island in Brittany. A graduate of the ESAD in Orléans, she continued her illustration training at the Haute école des arts du Rhin in Strasbourg. Her work has been exhibited in France, Canada, and China. She has received grants from Aide à la Création, as well as national research and creative residencies (École Nationale d'Aviation Civile, Toulouse; 2ANgles, Flers; Maison Germaine Tillion, Plouhinec) and international residencies (Lieu-Unique France and Axénéo7 Art Center, Gâtineau-Ottawa, Canada – Dianchi Art Festival, Kunming, China).
Recent exhibitions
| 2026 | APPARITION, group exhibition, La Chapelle des Cordeliers, Toulouse, FR |
| 2025 | Mauvaises Graines, solo exhibition, Maison Germaine Tillion, Résidence d’artistes, Plouhinec, FR C'est Extra, group exhibition, Villa Belleville, Paris, FR Multifacettes, group exhibition, Galerie Open School, Beaux-Arts de Nantes, FR |
| 2024 | SOLEIL VERT, solo exhibition, Galerie RDV, Nantes, FR La nymphe et la loge, solo exhibition, 2Angles, Flers, FR Embrasement des nuées, group exhibition, Galerie Open School, Beaux-Arts de Nantes, FR |
| 2023 | Dianchi Art Festival, group exhibition, Parc du lac Dianchi, Kunming, CH Les sens de l’art, group exhibition, Ateliers Magellan, Nantes, FR Détour(s), group exhibition, Moulin Gautron, Vertou, FR SAUVAGE !, solo exhibition, Galerie Le grand Huit, Collectif Bonus, Nantes, FR Wooden spirit, solo exhibition, centre d’art AXENÉO7, Gatineau, CA |