Marguerite Humeau

Critical text

In her works, Marguerite Humeau (b. 1986, Cholet) plunges into the great enigmas of humanity, into atavistic attempts to understand life and death. In her artistic research, she usually involves experts from a variety of sectors—ranging from palaeontology to music, to engineering and linguistics. She turns her hypotheses into sculptures and installations that fire the public’s imagination and induce intense sensory experiences, while not necessarily aiming to provide answers. Her pen and black ink drawings form a secret map of her artistic research, providing behind-the-scenes insights into her work while remaining mysterious themselves. The mystery that permeates the works we see here is that of the multiple interpretations of prehistoric statuettes of Venus dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic. Of the various theories concerning their origin, Marguerite Humeau embraces that of an American anthropologist who sees a link between the figures of the Venuses and the shape of the brains of certain animals that were probably eaten in order to enter into a trance. This has also inspired the titles of the works here, such as ‘Lascaux-Brain II (Projections)’. The artist creates the drawings almost instinctively during her artistic research, and indeed they are adventures of thought and studies in their own right.

Text by Letizia Ragaglia