Claire Laude (France/Germany)

Bio

Claire Laude’s project explores how loss shapes human connections to place and how spaces persist beyond physical existence. She will begin by investigating Narva-Jõesuu, focusing on the architecture of wooden houses—remnants of Russian design from the early 19th century. Drawing from this research into the geopolitical, historical, and social context, and inspired by personal stories such as a man facing expropriation, a woman in exile, or a photograph of women bathing, she will create a multidisciplinary work. This project will include photographs, drawings, maps, and a site-specific installation that evokes a habitable structure, symbolizing an ambivalent, multifaceted identity while addressing the fragility of human existence. Claire Laude is a French architect and artist based in Berlin since 1997. Her work spans photography, installation, drawing, and writing. She explores the destruction and reconstruction of spaces, focusing on how the past influences us and how experiences are reconstructed through facts, dreams, and interpretations. Laude has published three books, including A Silentio (2021, Editions Essarter), and has participated in artist residencies in Greece, Italy, and Tunisia (Villa Salaambô, 2023). Her work has been recognized with the 2021 Allegro Prize nomination and the 2019 Urbanautica Institute Award (1st Prize). She has exhibited internationally at venues such as H2 Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst (Augsburg), Kunstraum Kreuzberg, MACRO Museum (Rome), and Galerie Binome (Paris). Since 2020, Laude has been a member of the artist collective Pilote Contemporary Berlin.

Project

Claire will research the history of the man who lived in the house that we were allowed to visit and the history of the house. It is possible that he is no longer there, or that he will not let me come back. Whether he is there or not, her research will revolve around this threat, this reality, recent or past, of having to leave a place although there are needs and the personal afachments that belong to it. Claire would like to do an interview with this man, and to make photographs inside. She wants to research the history of the dismantling of these houses, of their architecture, which in addiBon to the personal stories that inhabit them, bear witness to a know-how and an ear of the past. Claire is also will offer a two-day workshop for adults or children.