Artist talk with French Artist Marion Safriouine: Contemporary visual art in Marseille - Challenges and Opportunities for Young Artists
As part of the program marking the month of Francophonie, on March 31 at 6 p.m. at the "Mission" gallery at the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs, French artist Marion Safrieuin will present in an artistic discussion with the Bulgarian audience the challenges and opportunities in the field of contemporary visual art in Marseille. The discussion will be held in French with translation in Bulgarian.
Contemporary artist Marion Safriouine is visiting Visionary Foundation for a 2-week creative residency in Sofia (21.03-06.04) as part of a series of residencies focused on abstract art, organized by the Foundation over the years. On April 2 at 6:00 p.m., her solo exhibition will open at Depoo gallery. Marion Safriouine expresses and develops professionally mainly in painting and photography, but in an unconventional way:
"I use photography and painting to create confusion and uncertainty between our perceptions of reality and imagination. I include familiar "codes" from reality, as a small fishing line for consciousness, entirely derived from practical reason and analogy. I let these mental images drift in an intermediate universe.
In photography, through the manipulation of colors, intensity, flash, cyan and deep black, saturation and overexposure, the image "steps over" the peculiar field of reality and only fragmentary details remain of it on the surface, marked by the erased and distorted, giving rise to a space for fantasy or an unconscious nostalgic history.
On the other hand - in painting, through a multilayered superposition of strokes, textures, images, I give flesh and form to images, the fruit of the immaterial and the imaginary."
The invitation to Marion Safriouine to visit Sofia is a continuation of Visionary’s idea of presenting and working with abstract artists, which takes the form of a residency and exhibition of international artists in Bulgaria. The project begins in 2022 with the art residency of Yannick Martin (France) and a series of art actions that he performs in Sofia. In 2023, the initiative is realized in collaboration with curators Atanas Levakov and Magdalena Dudova, when artists Johannes Mundinger and Steffen Mischke (Germany) immerse themselves in the unique spirit of the KOREN residency.
In 2025, Visionary Foundation renews the “Abstract Residencies” line in its program with a two-way artistic exchange between Bulgaria and France in collaboration with Urban Gallery - Marseille. The first phase of this cultural exchange marks the residency of Marion Safriouine in Sofia, organized with the financial support of the National Fund “Culture”, Mobility Program ‘24.
The project partners in Sofia are the State Cultural Institute, the International Organization of Francophonie, Depoo Gallery and Atelier Bohemingway.
The event at the "Mission" gallery is part of the program marking the 20th anniversary of the Institute's establishment.
Contacts:
https://visionary.foundation/bg
https://www.facebook.com/visionary.found
https://www.instagram.com/visionary.found/