Laura Sellies

Open Studios

In residence -

Opening September 21, 12pm to 2pm

Before coming to the United States, my project was to continue researching a feature film script I was working on. But when I arrived here, I started writing something completely different. A story in which three presents are juxtaposed: that of the inhabitants of Stamford, that of illness, and that of a love story that has come to an end. This story is interwoven with the voices of authors and characters who accompany me. We encounter Clarice Lispector, Maggie Nelson, Octavia E. Butler, Buffy Summers, Charlotte Moorman, Josephine Baker, Laura Palmer... By entrusting me with their words, the inhabitants of Stamford have restored my ability to use my own.



During the open studio, two films by the artist will be screened. “Elia” tells the story of a cellist who suffers from severe tinnitus, this new condition leads her to listen more deeply. Sounds appear within her and around her, giving her a glimpse of another reality. The second film work, entitled, “Dans ta gorge les géantes emportées” shows and make heard the relationship between two women who do not understand each other. One is deaf. She signs a story. The other is hearing. She sings what overflows from the signs and words: their intensity, their rhythm, their prosody. Sign language becomes dance while the voice becomes material: at a certain point, they cease to signify in order to literally replay the birth of things and bodies.

Laura Sellies is a graduate of the ENSBA Lyon fine art school and of the department of Creative Writing at University Paris 8. As an artist she develops a collaborative practice in which film, sound, sculpture, performance and writing become the elements of a silent language embodying forgotten narratives and future myths. She has been invited to show her work in places including the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Institut d’art contemporain (Villeurbanne), La Monnaie (Paris), the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), the Théâtre National de la danse de Chaillot (Paris), and the Collection Lambert (Avignon). Internationally, she has taken part in the Dakar Biennale (Senegal) and exhibited at the Wifredo Lam art center (Cuba) and in the AlUla desert (Saudi Arabia). Her work has been supported by a short residency at the Académie de France in Rome, Villa Médicis.

Additional featured artworks

  • "Dans ta gorge les géantes emportées", Laura Sellies, 2025, multi channel video installation, 11min

  • "Dans ta gorge les géantes emportées", Laura Sellies, 2025, multi channel video installation, 11min