Marilyne Grimmer ⎜Venice (France/Belgium)

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.

The Souvenirs Shop is a playful and participatory art project that turns local stories into unusual “souvenirs.” For the residency at Narva Venice, Grimmer will meet members of the community and listen to their thoughts, memories, and everyday feelings about the river, the area, and the nearby Russian border — whether it’s part of their daily lives or something they hardly think about. These conversations will inspire a handmade collection of fake souvenirs, the kind you’d find in a tourist shop, but based entirely on real people’s stories and co-created with them. Together, a souvenir shop will be built for a place where no tourists usually go.