Manon LANJOUÈRE weaves scientific inquiry with poetic imagination. Drawing on fields such as astronomy and oceanography, she creates meticulously composed photographs, cyanotypes, and installations that conjure imagined, yet research-informed worlds. Her work invites us to question what we see and reflect on how science, memory, and the environment shape our understanding of reality. What first appears to be delicate marine life—plankton, algae, invisible ecosystems—gradually reveals another truth: the forms are artificial, their beauty borrowed.
In Les Particules (2023), plastic becomes organism, illusion becomes warning. Light seems to emanate from within, as if the sea itself were dreaming. But the closer we look, the more the illusion fades. Plastic mimics life. Nature absorbs what threatens it. And in the space between illusion and recognition, we are asked to sense our deep entanglement—with water, with matter, and with the future we are already shaping.
