Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien is a contemporary artist who shines on today’s global art scene. Known for works inspired by different African cultures and horizons, her art explores motifs, expressions of femininity and traditional craft connections in a society modernized by industrialization.
From June 16 to September 10, 2023, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien takes over the Palace of Tokyo with her art installation “L’ÊTRE, L’AUTRE ET L’ENTRE“. An exhilarating exhibition of contemporary colors and patterns, it reveals her Creole heritage and her knowledge of the cultural traditions of the matriarchal Akan societies of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien owes her understanding of the world and her artistic practice to her cultural background. Of Guadeloupean and Ivorian origin, she was introduced to handicrafts at an early age by her mother and grandmother, an introduction to the field of art that served as the foundation for her current artistic technique. Today, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien presents us with a more elaborate mastery of her art through installations rich in contemporary motifs and stories, offering a rather flattering panorama of traditional craft cultures.
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien creates a unique superposition of textiles and sculpture, using a combination of industrial materials (copper, brass, aluminum) and natural ones (shells, raffia fiber, tree sap, rope). This exclusive combination enables the artist to create an ecosystem in which materials coexist in close harmony. Using a poetic, artistic language, she creates maps and landscapes that question the relationship between humans, the environment and all living beings.
For the exhibition “L’ÊTRE, L’AUTRE ET L’ENTRE“, a large stage curtain originally designed by Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien for the Beffroi theater in Montrouge has been specially relocated to the Palais de Tokyo for the duration of the exhibition, to echo the artist’s series of new and recent works. The relocation of this existing piece is a repetitive action in Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien‘s creative process.
In her installation “L’ÊTRE, L’AUTRE ET L’ENTRE“, she plunges visitors into an infinite exploration of her works, where forms overlap, pile up, communicate and renew themselves within a system of declensions specific to her care. The gathering of his creations in the unique architecture of the art center offers a new, immersive stage that welcomes the public in a singular way.
During her solo and group exhibitions, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien envelops the space with her rituals and poems. These unique moments of narrative sharing between artist and public give life to these works, which take on a profound interpretation. Like a griot, she captures her audience in an atmosphere imbued with her poetic and artistic art.