Marie de Saint Germain is a self-taught French visual artist born in 1963. Her work, deeply dreamlike and symbolic, explores the complexities of identity, the tensions of the mind, and the blurred zones of memory. Through a mixed media practice that combines paper, photography, and acrylic paint, she composes haunting images that exist at the threshold of dream and wakefulness.
Saint Germain’s artistic approach is profoundly influenced by symbolism and surrealism. Symbolism manifests as a silent enigma within her creations, where each form and texture carries an invisible weight of memory and imperfection. Surrealism offers her the freedom to bypass logical constraints, allowing images to emerge before their meanings are fully understood. This blend of influences reflects the ambiguity and complexity of human existence, where beauty and contradiction coexist.
At the core of her process is the transformative power of art. Saint Germain eloquently describes this concept:
“Transformation is at the heart of my process. It is that almost alchemical passage between the raw image and what it becomes once traversed by my intuitions, my obsessions, my wounds too. It is a constant dialogue between what I feel deeply, the intimate, and what emerges without warning, the strange.”
She often starts with real, tangible elements, which she fragments, recomposes, and diverts. “I seek to reveal what lies beneath the skin of things,” she explains. This desire to uncover the unseen allows her to articulate the deeper layers of human experience. As she elaborates, “Transformation allows me to open gaps in the visible, to access an intermediate space, where the unconscious dialogues with matter.”
The visual elements in her work are characterized by fragmented figures, suspended gazes, and bodies in metamorphosis. These motifs interrogate the invisible and the buried, revealing what persists despite fracture. Each piece invites viewers into an introspective space where appearances can deceive, allowing an intimate dialogue between the familiar and the strange. As she states, “In my works, the familiar becomes mysterious, the gaze gets lost and finds itself at the same time. It is in this tension that a deeper, more elusive truth is born for me. A truth that one cannot explain but can feel.”
Themes prevalent in her work often highlight the fragmented nature of identity, depicting it not as a loss but as a survival mode—a form of rebirth. The notion of existence in the gaps and tensions of life is central to her practice. Saint Germain explores the intimate interplay of emotions that are often ambivalent: the delicate balance of joy and pain, nostalgia and intrigue.
Exhibited in France, her ongoing body of work is singular, introspective, and vibrantly alive. By creating an evocative atmosphere that brings forth visceral poetry, Marie de Saint Germain invites us to explore the profound depths of ourselves, encouraging us to embrace the complexities of our identities. Her art continues to resonate, inspiring an enduring dialogue about the nature of transformation and the multifaceted layers of human experience.
Photo credits: The photograph is from the artist’s archive
Written by Joanna Longawa
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