MARION HOUSSIN
"I come from Ribemont-sur-Ancre, a town of 700 souls in the north of France, near Amiens. I spent my first 23 years there, studying art and business management before moving to Lyon and Paris to work in communication I struggle to define myself through my place of birth, I think it's above all our choices that say who we are: we become ourselves when we leave our place of origin.
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In 2021 I created the Garance & Marion graphic art gallery, together with Garance Laporte. We only collaborate with local artisans, which is a point of pride and a distinctive trait for us. We have been meeting the public for a year by creating traveling exhibitions in Venice and in the Veneto region, the next goal is the opening of our space in the city.
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Since 2010, the date of my first trip to Venice and love at first sight with the city, I have returned year after year, cherishing the dream of moving here. In 2014, I lived here for a few months and made some friends. At the end of 2019, I left France and moved here, initially with an internship at the Alliance Française. Just before the outbreak of the pandemic, I met Garance. A friendship was immediately born and, in our conversations, our project emerged: to open an atypical gallery in the city. I really wanted to get closer to Venice. I was in a difficult period of life, I wanted to leave everything to find myself and this was the right city. Here I felt alive again and I decided to find a way to stay here and create a future here: precisely the gallery.
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I think I have a visceral need to be surrounded by beauty, I could have made no choice but Venice. I have an almost passionate fusion relationship with Venice. Sometimes when it exasperates me I walk away from it, but I miss it. Those who choose to live here often experience this feeling of intimacy with the city. Luigi Groto said it very poetically, in his eulogy to Venice in 1570: "from that desire to return, which weighs on all those who leave it, it takes the name of Venice, as if to say to those who leave, in a sweet prayer: Veni etiam, come back again”.
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What strikes me about Venice is that you can always live there without knowing it completely. There is always a calle, a passage, a statue, a different light, Venice allows itself but makes fun of us. We think we know it but we're wrong, that's what makes it unique and magical. I would love to see all the closed and abandoned buildings and buildings come back to life, I would like them to come back to life thanks to cultural or social projects, I would like the inhabitants to take back space, that politics would give them a way to do so. There is an enormous amount of projects to be carried out in Venice, the city deserves it and we owe it to them. "
GUARANTEE LAPORTE
" I was born and raised in Pau, in southwestern France, between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic Ocean and the border with Spain. I have also lived in Bordeaux, England and Paris. Art historian, I have worked around the world of institutional museums. Today I am co-founder with Marion Houssin of the Garance & Marion gallery, a space dedicated to graphic arts which presents a selection of limited edition, numbered and signed works at affordable prices. We do many things: curation and organization of exhibitions, accounting, communication, development of our company.As an entrepreneur, it's a 360° job in which you learn every day.
I discovered Venice when I was 5 and returned as a teenager. I started dreaming of Italy as a child thanks to the passionate teaching of my parents, who were in love with this country. I moved here 6 years ago, got an internship at Palazzo Fortuny in 2016 which became a job for 4 years. Thanks to this training I was able to learn many trades that are still indispensable for me in the art gallery today: inventory, conservation, organization of exhibitions, curatorship, creation of catalogues.
It is difficult to put into words such a strong love story. Why yes: I have a true love for this city. I cannot live without Venice; sometimes i have to leave her because she suffocates me, she annoys me, but after a day i miss her. It is a special city that has no equal. My outlook has naturally evolved since I arrived but, despite its contemporary dysfunctions, Venice feels stronger. Feelings are magnified; here I love more and cry more than elsewhere. I found a perfect balance; this city calms me down in my always busy and hectic life. I can't even count the movie-worthy stories that have happened here; I'm not even sure anymore that they are coincidences, but simply obvious.
In Venice I love the light that rests on each of its architectural or natural elements. It's different every day. I would like to see a different kind of tourism in this city and a more peaceful Venice where the native Venetians welcome the Venetians wholeheartedly without contempt. Venice should be given back its greatest asset: international openness. But not only during the Biennale, or at the Biennale. That its artistic, culinary and artisanal culture is truly valued, that transmission and teaching are a pleasure and not a burden. In recent years I have dreamed of undertaking and enhancing art in a different and more accessible way in Venice; for this it was enough for me to meet a great friend, Marion, who had the same desire to do and not just say. This is how our gallery was born. "
The whole magazine here!
Thanks Waterline.
Photo: Irene Gittarelli
