Gabrielle Alexandre

Born in 1999 in Belfort, I grew up in Haute-Saône, a place that has become the source of my work and the ground for my research.

I first graduated with a DMA in Illustration from École Estienne in Paris, then completed a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree at the Beaux-Arts in Marseille.

To feel that one belongs to a territory, is it enough to have been born there? To have grown up or lived there? My practice questions this sense of belonging, particularly as a woman navigating rural spaces. I focus on the relationships women build with one another within these environments. Without overlooking certain realities, my work carries a desire to enchant the rural world, but also to express the pride of having grown up there. A sense of belonging also means assimilating and reclaiming the narratives that shape the place one comes from—local, familial, and personal stories.

Folk tales and popular fiction shape our collective imagination. My practice seeks to repair them through these rural memories, influenced by the concept of “repairing fiction” developed by Emilie Notéris.

Drawing on testimonies from women living in or having grown up in Franche-Comté, as well as legends collected around female figures from the region, I create installations and videos infused with the distorting mirror of a graphic and colorful imaginary. I employ various formal languages to unfold these narratives: sewing, textile printing, set construction, scriptwriting, drawing, wallpaper, sculptural forms…

From these read or transcribed stories, I build a repertoire of objects that I select to create staged environments: dolls evoking human presence; animals or vehicles made of fabric; logs of wood; cakes; insects and goose feet in papier-mâché; weapons made from branches or magic wands… These objects are handled as if playing with dolls.

With each exhibition, they are arranged differently, forming new relationships and offering new interpretations. At times, they become sets or costumes for film projects. Activated by performers, they shift function: it is truly about playing with them.