Marilyne Grimmer ⎜Venice (France/Belgium)

Bio

Marilyne Grimmer is a French visual artist and scenographer based in Brussels. After studying Illustration in London and Fine Arts in Paris, she worked for nearly a decade as a scenographer in the performing arts. Since 2020, she has focused fully on participatory, site-specific projects rooted in community narratives and everyday objects. Her playful, collaborative formats — staged photo, souvenir shops, ephemeral museums — are often created with and for local communities. She has developed projects in Japan, Vietnam, Italy, France, and Belgium, including Postcards from elsewhere and The Souvenirs Shop. Her work explores borders, thresholds, imaginary travel, and shared memory, and was a finalist in the 2021 LensCulture Art Photography Awards.

Project

“During my residency in Narva Venice, I developed Murmur, a participatory project shaped by symbols, colours, and the wind – where kites became messengers. In a series of workshops, local participants and I built kites inspired by their ancient military use in China: to send messages, measure distances, or intimidate the enemy. We made colourful kites, tested them along the banks of the reservoir – adjusting strings, chasing gusts, watching them rise and fall. In parallel, I created a series of seven kites inspired by traditional symbols, flags and their colours, and border stories. The project concluded with a floating parade: participants and I boarded boats and released our kites into the sky above the Narva reservoir, along the Russian border – each one carrying its own floating message.”