I paint what I don’t see

Marion Lachaise is a visual artist who lives and works in Paris.

Art opens a field of the imaginary and explores the experience of perception. What do I see, how do I see, from where do I see. Marion Lachaise's work is rooted in the sensory phenomenon of seeing. To see is an intention, a direction, a transformation. Something is happening. She proposes a subjective event of time and space, a reversal of the gaze. Her paintings are conceived as ocular scenes or as scores. Her interest in the criminal hearing translates into drawings, paintings and installations combining videos, performances and texts.

She worked with Thaddaeus Ropac and with Caroline Smulders. She founded the Scopique Studio association to developher projects, supported by private and public fundings.
Painting

the trial

The trial is a serie of 12 paintings : waiting, cross-examination, silence, closing argument, truth, verdict, without reference to any specific criminal case. Installed in the courthouse waiting hall, "the salle des pas perdus“, the work invite all visitors to move through the space and shift their perspective. From 2027, the exhibition will be presented in the courthouses of Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Saint-Nazaire, Toulouse, Alençon, Coutances, Argentan, Lisieux (…). A text by Denis Salas presents the exhibition.
le procès, traveling exhibition
2027-2030
le procès / the trial
12 paintings mounted back to back,
each 120 x 240 cm, 2026
le procès (attente) / the trial (waiting)
acrylic on canvas,
120x240cm, 2026
le procès (interrogatoire) / the trial (cross-examination)
acrylic on canvas,
120x240cm, 2026
Painting

eyescape

The eyescapes series draw inspiration from the 19th century peephole at Clairvaux’s Prison, a device for asymmetrical surveillance where the observer sees without being seen. The paintings subvert this logicby enacting a chiasm. The gaze is an intertwining: continuity and reversibility. The painting’s perspective places the viewer at the edge of a path, in a landscape that returns their gaze.
eyescape - 300160 - 1
acrylic on canvas,
300 x 160 cm, 2022
eyescape - 500160 - 1
acrylic on canvas,
500 x 160 cm, 2022
eyescape - 317127
acrylic and oil on canvas,
317 x 127 cm, 2022
eyescape - 12060 - 3
acrylic and oil on canvas,
120 x 60 cm, 2021
eyescape - 12060 - 2
oil on canvas,
120 x 60 cm, 2021
eyescape - 12060 - 1
oil on canvas,
120 x 60 cm, 2021
eyescape - 180130 - 1
ink and watercolour on paper,
180 x 130 cm, 2022
eyescape -180130 - 2
ink and watercolour on paper,
180 x 130 cm, 2022
eyescape - 180160 - 1
acrylic and oil on canvas,
180 x 160 cm, 2024
eyescape - 1422 - 1
oil on canvas,
14 x 22 cm, 2022
insanityornot - blow-up1
acrylic on linen,
205 x 195 cm, 2024
insanityornot - close-up2
acrylic on linen,
100 x 81 cm, 2024
eyescape - 15:59 thursday night
oil on linen,
55 x 46 cm, 2024
eyescape - 16:14 thursday night
oil on linen,
55 x 46 cm, 2024
insanityornot - blow-up3
acrylic on canvas,
81 x 100 cm, 2024
insanityornot - blow-up4
acrylic and oil on canvas,
76 x 116 cm, 2024
Painting

silent score

I go to criminal court. I sit on the press bench. I am focused on events. I choose a line of viewing to target the protagonists’ gazes. I shift attention, identify places, roles, rituals. I translate non-verbal language into visual trajectories. The changing behavior of the participants through the hearing is what interests me. The paintings are silent scores. I paint touch upon touch, layering and shifting, changing scale, weaving, swelling, until a pictorial rhythm emerges.
14:23 lets drill into that
acrylic on burlap,
215 x 205 cm, 2024
14:23 lets drill into that - blow-up
acrylic on linen,
55 x 46 cm, 2025
11:09 insanityornot
acrylic on linen,
195 x 195 cm, 2024
09:55 good morning judge
acrylic on jute,
55 x 46 cm, 2024
15:27 your volteface
acrylic on linen,
98 x 87 cm, 2025
15:27 your volteface
acrylic on linen,
90 x 99 cm, 2025
14:10-14:53 is that clear
acrylic on linen,
215 x 55 cm, 2024
14:18-15:45 reasonable doubt
‍acrylic on cotton,
205 x 41 cm, 2024
I don’t believe in smoke signals says Judge
acrylic on jute,
80 x 46 cm, 2024
15:42 jurors leave
acrylic on linen,
80 x 46 cm, 2024
art on paper

the drawing eye

The drawing eye is a performative drawing practice, particularly in the criminal court, where I trace live what is not spoken, what is not written: the exchanges of glances between the protagonists. I do not narrate the criminal case. A criminal hearing is a scene. The protagonists areassigned to a place, exposed to the light. They all become characters, human destinies bound together around an irreversible act. Everything ison display. The visible and the invisible, exposed on the same stage.

œil pour œil / an eye for an eye

I attended a criminal trial at the Palais de Justice in Paris. Eight defendants were accused. The story was one of endless revenge. The opposing families were present at the trial. The 40 drawings are a real, symbolic and sensory journey through that case, displaying the play of glances observed at the trial.
art on paper

cour d'assises / criminal court

I attended a trial at the criminal court of Dublin during a residency at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. In civil law, the procedure is inquisitorial. The presidentis the master of truth. Judgment is delivered by 3 professional magistrates and 6 jurors before a central court shaped as an arena. The accused is themain focal point. In common law, the procedure is adversarial. There is a duel between the defense barrister and the prosecution barrister. Judgment isrendered by a jury of 12 citizens. The jury is the master of truth. The accused stands aside.
11:09 insanityornot
pencil and watercolor on paper,
28 x 21 cm, 2025
14:23 lets drill into that
pencil and watercolor on paper,
28 x 21 cm, 2025
insanityornot-red
pencil and watercolor on paper,
42 x 30 cm, 2025
oeil pour oeil / an eye for an eye
pencil and brown paper,
22 x 34 cm, 2025
la jeune fille et la boucle d'oreille / the girl and the earing
pencil, watercolour on paper,
65 x 96 cm, 2021
la jeune fille et la boucle d'oreille / the girl and the earing
pencil, watercolour on paper,
65 x 96 cm, 2021
la jeune fille et la boucle d'oreille / the girl and the earing
charcoal on paper,
96 x 63 cm, 2018
la jeune fille et la boucle d'oreille / the girl and the earing
ink, watercolour on paper,
96 x 63 cm, 2021
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil, watercolour on paper,
78 x 57 cm, 2014
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil, watercolour on paper,
78 x 57 cm, 2014
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil on paper,
78 x 57 cm, 2014
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil on paper,
78 x 57 cm, 2014
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil and watercolour on paper,
96 x 63 cm, 2019
la fille, la mère et l'avocate / the daughter, the mother and the lawyer
pencil and watercolour on paper,
20 x 30 cm, 2019
plaidoirie / pleading
‍pencil and watercolour on paper,
57 x 78 cm, 2024
plaidoirie / pleading
pencil and watercolour on paper,
57 x 78 cm, 2024
œil pour œil / an eye for an eye
‍pencil and watercolour on paper,
66 x 102 cm, 2024
œil pour œil / an eye for an eye
pencil and watercolour on paper,
66 x 102 cm, 2024
Play

dans l'œil du box / from the accused box

(2026, 30 min.)
The performance explores the chiasm «to judge and to be judged». The gaze is reversed : it is no longer the institution that observes and judges the accused, but the accused who bears witness to what they have seen : the weight of the gaze, the beating ofthe body exposed to judgment, the disruption of time. The performance shifts the trial from the legal ground to the sensory space. Performance by Marion Lachaise ; With the complicity of Juliette Binoche ; Musical composition : Abril Padilla ; Recorded voices of prisoners Arlette, Catherine, Xavier, Jules, Benjamin ; Sound engineer : Line Multari ; Production : Scopique Studio.
centre pénitentiaire sud-francilien
with Catherine, Arlette, Xavier, Benjamin, Jules
video

chœur captif avec Juliette Binoche / choir of women prisoners

(2021, 7 min.)
I directed the actress Juliette Binoche to embody the voices of women prisoners. Adaptation of the text with the contribution of Corinne Rondeau.
Corinne Rondeau is a lecturer in aesthetics and art studies, a critic and a contributor to France Culture.
video

antiportraits

(2018, 40 min. / 2011-15, 16 min.)
The antiportrait device questions the idea of resemblance with long-term female and male prisoners, who have lost their image and no longer know how to see themselves. The integrity of the face can never be fully seen. The antiportrait plays with the non-recognition of features, looking for one freed from model resemblance and penal identity. It combines sculptures, videos and texts. Antiportraits, Réau (2018, 40min.) and Antiportraits, Clairvaux (2011–2015, 16 min.).
with Bernadette, Krysia, Babou, Marixol, Djanet, Mya, Ingrid, Coco
with Djamel, Jean-Pierre, François, Nemo, Akim, Stanley, Dumé
prize : A project, a philanthropist 2018 with Paris’s Bar, delivered by Françoise Nyssen, former minister of Culture.
book

l'œil de Clairvaux / the eye of Clairvaux

(2015) a device in augmented reality
TransPhotographicPress edition. Preface Christiane Taubira, Texts Philippe Artières, Sonya Faure, Jean-François Leroux-Dhuys, Olivier Marboeuf, Denis Salas, Interactive design Julie Stephen Chheng.
[...] With her video portraits that jump from the book to our phone screens, Marion Lachaise and the prisoners of Clairvaux dig tunnels, weave sheets as ropes, charter helicopters so that the words of the inmates can reach us [...].
Sonya Faure, journalist for the newspaperLibération
prize : Beau Livre at the 2016 book fair of Paris’s Bar, ex-aequo with «Murmures pour la jeunesse» de Christiane Taubira.
photography

œilleton / peephole

(2011-2018)
inkjet on photopaper,
2011-2018
inkjet on photopaper,
2011-2018
photography

ostrakon Loïe Fuller

[...] Marion Lachaise proposes another adventure turning the clock backwards. With a keen eye, I listened to her talk about the “silent beauty of washed-up objects”. For several years, she has been collecting oyster concretions on the Atlantic coast, the place of her childhood.[...]
in Silencio, Corinne Rondeau, 2020
inkjet on photopaper,
2019
cover for the book of Marie Silkerberg Hjärta, jägare,
Albert Bonniers edition,
march 2025
Cadre en Seine Labo,
Paris,
2023
exhibition view,
APDV Centre d'Art, Paris
2024

bio

Marion Lachaise studied at the Villa Arson, the international school of Art and Research in Nice. She completed a postgraduate course at the Ateliers 63 in Haarlem (Nederlands). Among her exhibitions, she has been invited to exhibit at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Salzburg and Paris, Galerie Tanit Munich, Galerie Anton Weller Paris, Zoo Galerie Nantes ; Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Vilnius Lithuania, Shed Im Eisen Werk Zurich, EspaceKhiasma Les Lilas, Musée Commun Paris, Musée des Confluences Lyon, Musée de la Croix Rouge et du Croissant Rouge Geneva, La Maison Rouge Paris, le théâtreParis-Villette, APDV Centre d’Art Paris.

In 2027, she will collaborate with choreographer Myriam Gourfink, as well as with composer Abril Padilla and the instrumental ensemble L’Instant Donné. She collaborated with the former Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, the actress Juliette Binoche, the curator Ami Barak, the art critic Corinne Rondeau,the Interactive designer Julie Stephen Cheng, the cinema operator Isabelle Razavet, the sounds-engineers Guillaume Valeix, the pianiofortist Florent Albrecht...