"Map #23" and "Brass Ribbon" (2019)
Jute fiber, hair, scraper, raffia fiber, aluminum, resin, brass
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien works in a variety of media including textiles, drawing, video performance, and installation. In her work, she creates stories and poetic narratives, syncretic combinations of diverse elements, questioning the territories of femininity as well as the relationship to craft traditions in a modernized society.
The work contains hidden elements and messages, poems and texts, mythologies in which it is possible to recognise ourselves, and symbols that form a bridge and unite us and together remind us of the coded messages that have been an essential means of resistance. Working with elements and objects rooted in different cultures and natures, the artist encourages them to transgress each other, resist and change, without losing or distorting anything.
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien's work can also be seen in the sister-exhibition Long-distance Friendships at the 14th Kaunas Biennial.
/ Photo credit: Kristīne Madjare / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art