Spit kiss from earth, Istituto Svizzero, Rome, 2022. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio
Spit kiss from earth, mcba, Lausanne, 2022. Photo: Etienne Malapert
Wet Men, Mayday, Bâle, 2022. Photo: Moritz Schermbach
Wet Men, Soleil Triste, MO.CO, Montpellier, 2022
Lou Masduraud (born in 1990 in Montpellier) lives and works between Geneva and Sète. Working across sculpture, installation and craft, and at a wide range of scales — from jewellery to monumental installation — Lou Masduraud develops a practice in which architectural forms and everyday uses are displaced, hybridized, replayed. Fountains, basement vents and street lamps become tipping points between public and private space, between function and fiction. These objects of public space are closely examined to expose the social norms, physical constraints and power relations that underlie them ; with the primary aim of breaking free from them, escaping. Her approach places production methods at its core: she draws on traditional craft knowledge (bronze casting, marble carving) which she subverts through more experimental gestures, sometimes deliberately punk and fun, including patinating copper with cucumber slices. This mix of rigour and irreverence runs through her practice as a whole.
Lou Masduraud received the Swiss Art Award in 2024 and the Geneva Manor Art Prize in 2023. She has exhibited internationally in galleries and institutions such as Le Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire (2025); Shower, Seoul (2025); MAMCO, Geneva (2025, 2023); Kunsthaus, Langenthal (2024); Swiss Art Awards, Basel (2024); Villa Medici, Rome (2024); CRAC Alsace, Altkirch (2024); Fondation Bally, Lugano (2024); MAMCO – Prix Manor, Geneva (2023); CAPC, Bordeaux (2023); Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2022); La Maison Populaire, Montreuil (2021); and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (2021). Masduraud’s works are held in various private and public collections, including the CNAP (France), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (France), FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France), FRAC Occitanie (France), MAMVP (France), MAMCO (Switzerland), FMAC (Switzerland), and FCAC Geneva (Switzerland).
