Riddles wins the second edition of Battaglia Foundry Sculpture Prize, dedicated to bronze sculpture. A riddle of eternity, because the eternity is the theme of 2017 edition. The BFSP invited artists to reflect upon the responsibilities and awareness implied in casting a form – a value, or a content – for eternity.

Marguerite Humeau is a young artist, 1986. She studied as a designer – it means, yes, she is also a designer! Her pieces were displayed everywhere: Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Serpentine Gallery in London, Moma in New York. Humeau’s esthetics let enter extinct, unknown imaginary lives. In her art Humeau proposes a reflection about the dichotomy between space and time, the transition between animal and minerals, human desires and natural forces. 

Riddles aims at discussing the ambiguous status of security protocoles in our contemporary securitarian era by looking at their origin in ancient histories and more specifically in the figure of the sphinx. Mysterious bronze pieces were discovered by archeologists in the 61 human skeletons found at Site 117 in the Nile Valley, the earliest evidence of an organised massacre, that happened around 13000 years ago. Who killed those early hominids? Are the bronze pieces remnants of the talons of a vulture, or of a mythical sphinx who would have come to life and be a protagonist in this brutal scene?

Marguerite Humeau wins a scholarship, an artist-residency in the historical Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, beginning at the end of November 2017, and an exhibition of the winning artwork produced during the residency. The exhibition will open in April 2018, during the next edition of Miart, Milan’s Contemporary Art Fair.