A text by Camille Minh Lan Gouin
Duo-show avec Blanche Vivet
La Grande Passerelle - Saint-Malo
2025
They play by the seaside, in the forest, in the mist, the foam, or the smoke. They are inventing a game, writing its rules. Their simultaneous gestures constantly echo each other, rekindling childhood games, their magic, and the fantasies they carry. Enclosed in their bubble, absorbed in the stories they tell each other, they could be mistaken for twins.
But they refuse to be mere doubles of one another; they must differentiate themselves and choose unique roles to each in the initiatory fictions they create. One will be the mermaid, the other the witch—but it could just as easily be the reverse. They are sometimes heads, sometimes tails. Yet gradually, something gives way, pulling them apart; they must separate if they want to keep playing together. The distance grows until one remains outside, while the other retreats indoors. But the game each plays on their own remains the same.
Like fantasy tales, an alternative world unfolds before us—a world defined by endemic flora and fauna, far removed from the rationalization and industrial or urban landscapes we inhabit. These unsettlingly enchanting spaces are populated by creatures that stray from humanity, such as mermaids and witches.
Adèle Vivet ’s work explores a powerful relationship with the corporeal. Silhouettes emerge from sharp, organic forms. These bodies, in motion and contraction, reflect the emotional states experienced by the artist as well as her perception of her own body. Materializing these feelings through archetypal figures allows her to confront and exorcise this vision of herself. These characters act as vessels for the artist’s passions, performing them in her stead, like personas enacting a catharsis. Some pieces even serve as accessories, enabling the artist to activate and embody her characters. These objects thus hold transformative potential, capable of altering both reality and selfperception. The artist sometimes depicts herself among her characters, as in a cameo, notably in Self-Portrait with Mouth Wide Open, where she appears threatening.
Blanche Vivet, on the other hand, approaches painting through the contemplation of her surroundings. Elements drawn from life and nature, such as roots, flowers, organs, or flames, twist and flourish into fractals. Each painting represents a threshold, a transition between worlds, where enchantment can be both wondrous and terrifying. The artist maps out spaces with varying scales, highlighting their mystery and magic. With a certain nostalgia for the ephemeral— like her vanished childhood—she seeks to capture movement, seize memories, and surround herself with landscapes imbued with a mystical aura. Echoing video games, some paintings remain in a state of blur, suggesting territories yet to be explored and quests still to be completed.
Throughout the exhibition, the works of the two sisters intertwine, blend, and overlap.
When humans expect fraternal twins, there are rare cases where the two embryos fuse into one, combining two distinct DNA profiles. Children born from this process, called “chimerism,” carry different DNA depending on the part of their body. The union of two fraternal twins thus creates a chimera. Sometimes, the mermaid and the witch merge into a single twin entity: the Sorène.
Camille Minh Lan Gouin
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Podcast Concrètement Flou
Marcelle Germaine
2024
“Hello, hi everyone
After months and months of radio silence, I’m thrilled to be back in your ears—this time with artist Adèle Vivet.
With a background in design, we dove into a real studio-style chat where we unpacked her journey from designer to artist! We talked about her studies, how she developed and deepened her sculptural work as it transitioned into painting.
We also discussed her life as a full-time artist, her upcoming residency in Saint-Malo, and how she’s been refocusing the personal and intimate aspects of her practice alongside her sister Blanche Vivet.
It’s an episode that goes in all directions—a true reflection of the kinds of conversations that happen in the studio!”
à écouter sur Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/episode/2KZuWCDR0ZLFEIAHRajPqM