Marie Claire Messouma Manlanbien (b. 1990, Paris, France) is a French-Gabonese visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, and textile-based work. Drawing from personal and ancestral histories, she explores themes of migration, displacement, and the layered construction of identity. Working with organic materials such as soil, seeds, wood, and fabric, her practice examines how bodies and materials carry memory across geographies and generations, creating immersive environments that hold fragility and resilience in tension.

Working with organic and symbolic materials—such as soil, seeds, wood, textiles, and found objects—Messouma Manlanbien creates tactile environments that feel both intimate and expansive. Her sculptural forms often reference ritual, landscape, and domestic space, inviting viewers to consider how heritage is transmitted through touch, labor, and repetition. Materials are not neutral in her work; they function as living archives, bearing traces of land, lineage, and movement.

Through carefully constructed installations and materially rich surfaces, Messouma Manlanbien positions space itself as a site of negotiation and belonging. Her practice bridges fragility and strength, revealing how histories of migration and diaspora generate new forms of resilience, continuity, and collective memory.

Highlights:

• Messouma Manlanbien trained in fine art in France, developing a multidisciplinary practice rooted in sculpture and installation.

• Recipient of major institutional recognition in France, including support from the French Ministry of Culture and public art commissions that foreground questions of identity and belonging.

• Awarded prestigious honors such as the Prix des Amis du Palais de Tokyo and recognized as a finalist for prominent contemporary art prizes supporting emerging artists in Europe.

• Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at leading institutions, including Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Fondation H (Madagascar), and international art centers across Europe and Africa.

• Included in public and private collections in France and internationally, contributing to expanding dialogues around diasporic memory, materiality, and contemporary sculpture.

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Click the link to learn more about Marie Claire Messouma Manlanbien and her work through her Instagram. Watch the video below!

Marie Claire Messouma Manlanbien, “Human Intra Natura, Nuit”, 2024

“18th International Triennial of Textile: Deconstruction / Reconstruction” – Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź, Poland (October 11, 2025 – April 12, 2026)

Marie Claire Messouma Manlanbien participates in the 18th International Triennial of Textile, a major global survey dedicated to contemporary textile practices. Titled Deconstruction / Reconstruction, this edition gathers artists who challenge and expand the language of fiber, material, and form.

Past Exhibitions

• “Corps à cordes: Vibrations et résonances” – Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, France (June 6, 2025 – January 4, 2026)
  

• “Après la fin. Cartes pour un autre avenir” – Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France (January 25 – September 1, 2025)
  

• Sillon Biennale d’Art et des Cultures – Château / Domaine des Sources, France (October 11 – 26, 2025)

Featured Artworks

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