Emmanuelle Briat

Emmanuelle Briat was born in 1973 in Landerneau, Brittany.

Her childhood in Liberia, Africa, was a defining moment in her discovery of nature. She rediscovered travel at the age of 20 and gained experience working with landscapers and decorators around the world (Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean). She learned about tropical and European flora and observed the relationship between different cultures and nature. Since 2000, with her first exhibition in Cameroon, she has explored plants, their movements, their flexibility, their particularities, and their place in our societies.

Emmanuelle Briat has been selected for numerous exhibitions and calls for projects in France and abroad: Artists at the C.A.C.T.U.S. Garden, Quimper, the Science of Art Biennale, Vign’art, the Drac Val de Loire Culture/Health call for projects, etc.

Finally, in 2024, she will hold a solo exhibition at the regional estate of the Château de Villarceaux (95) and return to Africa, invited for a residency by the Alliance Française of Gambia.

Several projects are underway in 2025, including the exhibition Faire Liane at the Plateforme art center in Paris, a solo exhibition at the Abbaye du Relec, and the quadrennial exhibition Pièces d’été (Summer Pieces) (Malbuissonart).

Démarche artistique

Plasticienne végétale, je développe une pratique artistique fondée sur l’utilisation de matériaux naturels. En travaillant avec le vivant, je fais surgir des formes organiques qui prennent appui sur l’architecture végétale et minérale. Je tisse, compose, entrelace et mets en forme les éléments que je recueille dans la nature pour faire percevoir leurs particularités, textures et facultés de développement. Je me laisse guider par l’observation de la nature pour composer des œuvres poétiques pérennes et éphémères.
Elles s’inscrivent dans l’espace et prennent place dans les paysages urbains et naturels. Je crée également des scénographies végétales en travaillant avec des vidéos et des sons. En créant avec le végétal, je cherche à restaurer le lien de l’homme avec la nature. Mes sculptures végétales se fondent dans les espaces, s’intègrent parfois à des arbres pour inviter le promeneur à s’arrêter et porter son regard sur l’environnement. Je mène également des ateliers de pratique artistique pour des enfants et des adultes, l’objectif étant de sensibiliser à l’art et l’écologie. 

Artistic approach : English version

Observing nature is constantly a driving force of Briat’s artistic approach, who calls herself a “vegetal visual »  artist. She experiments with movement, form, and sense while also playing with colors and materials.
Her objective is the establishment of a link between art and the environment, of man and of vegetation. But it’s also about making people aware of nature’s beauty, of its fragility, of the equilibrium and the wellbeing that it produces, so that we can understand the importance of respecting and preserving it.
Vegetation is an important part of her work. She loves “vegetating” letters, objects, infrastructures, and buildings. Finally, she works more and more on big projects, including a giant woman, sculptures supporting a 150-year-old Sequoia tree, and huge letters.
Nature withers away and disappears; massive urbanization has left it somewhat forgotten.
It is vital. It knows !
Then, she began to sculp old trees with hole inside and roots. She also create vegetal scenographies and installations. She won call for projects in France and Belgium and she will create a sustainable vegetal scenography in Auvers- sur- Oise Castle in september.