Nolwenn Brod creates a phenomenological body of work—the kind that places the experience of encounter at the heart of the creative process. It all began in Ireland, following in her father’s footsteps (Go Lose Me Wherever You Want, 2015 – Poursuite Editions), then in cities with industrial or port histories, scarred by war: Łódź, Warsaw, and Gdańsk in Poland; Beirut in Lebanon; and more recently, Brest in Brittany. Her work often explores the representation of an inner struggle, a duel, and the forms created by conflicting forces. Every portrait, every individual story, is political; bodies constitute society. Her work is nourished by the meticulous observation of meaningful everyday gestures, micro-sensations, micro-events, and the fleeting nature of the moment and the presence of people.
With, on, under, through—these are all conjunctions for understanding the environment and the inhabitants in and with whom she is led to work. Her projects are nourished by literary companions: Witold Gombrowicz’s *Structuralism of the Street* accompanied her in Poland during the creation of *The Time of Immaturity* (2018–ongoing); in Creuse, drawing on the writings of Gilles Deleuze, she composed the photographs for *La Ritournelle* (2015–16); more recently, Jean-Luc Nancy, Charles S. Peirce, and Tanguy Viel have inspired *Les Hautes solitudes* in Brest (2021 – ongoing).
Nolwenn Brod is a French artist based in Paris. She studied humanities and social sciences and trained in photography in London and at the École des Gobelins in Paris. She has been a member of Agence Vu and represented by the eponymous gallery in Paris since 2016.
She most often develops her projects through creative residencies in France and Europe, where she combines photography and video, and takes on commissions for the press and institutions. Her works are regularly exhibited in France and across Europe and are part of the collections of the BnF, the CNAP, the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, the Musée de Bretagne, the Villa Noailles, the Agnès b. Collection, the Neuflize OBC Foundation, art libraries, and private collections. Her first book was published by Poursuite in 2015; her second is in the works.
