Read the artist's report on her residency below, in which she reflects on her experience.

"During my three weeks at the Saline Royale (May 5-25, 2025), I was able to live in the gardens, photographing the insects and wildlife that inhabit them. I also explored the Chaux forest, the Loue and Doubs rivers, and the fields of the region, which gave me a better understanding of nature and how ecosystems work. In Besançon, I visited the insectarium at the Citadel Museum, where I was able to observe and photograph more than 60 living species.

A great discovery for me at the Saline bookshop was the thinking of architect and designer Luc Schuiten, creator of the Jardin de l'Arc Jurassien at the Saline Royale. He proposes biomimicry as a vision of a “desirable world”: drawing inspiration from nature to design a world magnified by its relationship with living things. 

All these stimuli greatly contributed to enriching my project La Rébellion des Insectes (The Insect Rebellion). I was able to photograph a huge variety of small insects that I don't have access to in my usual environment, such as dragonflies, beetles, rose chafer beetles, crickets, stick insects, water fleas, butterflies, and many others.

Thanks to previous grants, I was able to travel to Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Venice, where I took photographs of the distinctive urban architecture of each of these cities. These photographs are essential to the continuation of the series La Rébellion des Insectes (The Insect Rebellion), which was awarded a grant by the Odyssée program. 

As a reminder, La Rébellion des Insectes is a photographic saga that poetically and metaphorically highlights the slow and dramatic disappearance of insects in the face of urban expansion. The work consists of large-format images of metropolitan buildings and architectural structures, modified and merged with the Bichos series. The characters in the saga, the insects, are first depicted in full advance, preparing their rebellion. Then, through an exaggeration of scale, these insect characters reconquer the urban landscapes of cities. 

The saga is a visual manifesto, a call to raise awareness of the need to value, protect, and restore planetary ecosystems and biodiversity.

During my stay at La Saline, through Lionel Viard (Head of Cultural Programming at the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans), I met two photographers based in Besançon, Elisa Murcia Artengo and Nicolás Waltefaugle, with whom I was able to discuss approaches to contemporary photography, particularly the value of film photography and manual black-and-white printing.

Through Lionel, I was also able to discuss my work with the residents of Arc-et-Senans at the community bar Aux Trois Coups.

In Paris, I had the opportunity to visit the retrospective exhibition of the work of Robert Doisneau, a great photographer who has inspired me throughout my career.

In Arc-et-Senans, I also had the chance to talk with French filmmaker and photographer Jean-Philippe Macchioni, who owns an art gallery opposite the Royal Saltworks. Macchioni works on his photographs using a very particular technique and generously shared his experience with me, which has been a significant contribution to my own artistic practice.

My residency at the Saline Royale has been extremely enriching in every way. With more than 1,200 photographs taken, I am now ready to continue and develop this project, which I hope to present and exhibit in the near future.