Exposition
02.10.26 → 05.12.26
Woman Cave, The Curtain
Woman Cave avec des œuvres du Frac Bretagne de Patrice Carré, Daniel Challe, Louise Lawler, Jos Le Corre, Antoine Lucas, Gilles Mahé, Julie Morel
© Woman Cave, crédit photo : Sepideh Farvardin
In partnership with EUR CAPS, the galerie art & essai invites the duo Woman Cave for a research and creation residency during the 2026-2027 academic year. Their practice questions notions of gender and inclusivity in lived spaces: how, and for whom, are our everyday spaces built? As part of their residency, the duo is invited to experiment with ways of making contemporary art accessible when it finds its way into the daily lives of the users of Université Rennes 2. Walking through the Villejean campus, the duo explores another way of collectively inhabiting the university, drawing on participatory methods.
To launch their research-creation residency at the galerie art & essai, in partnership with EUR CAPS, Woman Cave has been invited to take over the Cabinet de lectures, on the first floor of the central university library on the Villejean campus.
Working from a selection of artworks on loan from the Frac Bretagne, Woman Cave presents an installation that questions the place of art in our daily lives and our relationship to its institutions. The outcome of a collaborative workshop held in September 2026 with students from the Visual Arts Master’s programme at Université Rennes 2 and from the EUR CAPS Master’s programme in Creative Approaches to Public Space, including some from the École des Beaux-arts de Bretagne, Le Rideau (The Curtain) is an installation that invites visitors to play with the works on display, opening up reading windows and offering multiple narratives.
Le Rideau enters into dialogue with a twofold selection of books drawn from the collections of the university library and of the Archives de la critique d’art, which host the Petit cabinet de lectures. Put together by Émeline Jaret in conversation with Woman Cave, this selection brings together literature on the renewal of art criticism in response to eco-socially engaged artistic practices, echoing the theme of the 58th International AICA Congress (12 to 17 October 2026, Rennes).
Over its two-month run, Le Rideau at the Cabinet de lectures thus stands as Woman Cave’s first proposal for reaching out to the university’s users.
MORE
- Cabinet de lectures of the
galerieart & essai, Central University Library (Faulkner hall, first floor), Villejean campus, Université Rennes 2 - Petit cabinet de lectures of the
galerieart & essai, Archives de la critique d’art, 4 allée Marie Berhaut, Building B, Rennes - Vernissage on 05.10.26 at 18h
Opening: 5 October 2026, 6 pm, meeting room (salle de rencontre), Central University Library
Meet Woman Cave: Thursday 15 October 2026, 12 pm to 2 pm, Agora of the Central University Library (first floor)
Woman Cave is an art and design duo founded by two friends, architect Chloé Macary-Carney and artist Léticia Chanliau. They have been working on notions of gender and inclusivity in lived spaces since 2019. They strive to revalue craft practices and DIY methods in a transdisciplinary spirit, with a preference for reused materials. They explore these themes by creating spaces, scenographies and objects, but also by publishing a print magazine, Situé (formerly Woman Journal), and by running workshops. They also take part in exhibitions and biennials within cultural programmes at the crossroads of contemporary art, architecture and design. They were part of the 2023 cohort of SANA, the incubator for young architecture practices at ENSA Clermont-Ferrand.
web womancave.fr
instagram @womancave_collective
The galerie art & essai thanks the partners and supporters of this exhibition: EUR CAPS, the Frac Bretagne, the Archives de la critique d’art and the Service Commun de la Documentation (SCD, university library service) of Université Rennes 2. EUR CAPS receives State funding managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the Investments for the Future programme, part of France 2030, reference ANR-18-EURE-0007.