The Fondation Fiminco, located in Paris, offers a vibrant cultural space that fosters interdisciplinary artistic practices. This is a review of the Foundation by Burçak Yakıcı, and the dialogues and connections encountered while visiting

a review of the French Fondation Fiminco by Burçak Yakıcı 
Curatorial residency supported by T- ONE Association

BODY · SURFACE · SPACE

What transforms a space into a meaningful place? Is it the physical marks left behind, the emotions that resonate, or the memories layered over time? Artists’ lived experiences transform spaces, layering them with memories, emotions, and physical marks, evolving into immersive sites for shared engagement. Shaped by the individuals inhabiting them, these spaces create rich dialogues, weaving both visible and hidden sentiments, allowing new layers of meaning to emerge. In an art space, the studio itself becomes a medium for empathy and connection, inviting viewers to experience collective memory in an embodied form.

The Fondation Fiminco, located in Paris, offers a vibrant cultural space that fosters interdisciplinary artistic practices. Here, the physical acts of artmaking become a dialogue among diverse voices, a living texture through which we’re invited to move, feel, and understand. My curatorial residency at the Fondation Fiminco is supported by the T-One Association, whose backing has allowed me to engage deeply with the artists’s practices. In this review, these moments of connection are amplified through my conversations with the artists during studio visits as well as during the open studio day in November 2024, where the artists’ workspaces become venues for exchange. Through my studio visits and an open studio day, residents Nefeli Papadimouli, Mena Guerrero and Jisoo Yoo shared insights into their artistic processes. Each of whom brings a distinct yet interconnected vision of the body as a witness, a participant, and a bridge between shared and private spaces. In each artist’s work, the body is not only an active participant but also a bridge between the personal and the universal, embodying both vulnerability and endurance. Their work illustrates how physical forms can serve as conduits of empathy, merging individual memories with collective societal narratives.

Fondation Fiminco, Manuel Abella

Nefeli Papadimouli
Among the artists, Nefeli Papadimouli stands out as an artist with a background in architecture, based in Paris and Athens. Papadimouli’s spatial explorations emerge as layered reflections that quietly navigate personal and socio-political landscapes. Her architectural background deeply informs her approach, as she draws on the physical and relational spaces that shape how we experience the world. By continually returning to architectural principles, her work seems to focuse on the intricate relationship between body and space, reflecting on how the body’s physical presence and movement interact with and address voids within a given space.

For Papadimouli, space transforms into an active experiment, redefined by personal encounters and shaped by broader societal concerns. During my studio visit, we discussed her journey and the turning points in her art practice. Her works exemplify the merging of architectural precision with the softness of fabric, creating a tactile dialogue between the rigidity of material and the fluidity of textile. This dynamic interplay, expressed through performances involving large wearable sculptures, invites viewers to immerse themselves in the tension between structure and flexibility, offering a deeper reflection on how spaces are inhabited and shaped by human presence.

Nefeli Papadimouli, Espacentres. @Nefeli Papadimouli

Papadimouli’s work invites a deeper reflection on connection and interaction, emphasizing the complexities of inhabiting shared spaces and the significance of the environments we collectively shape. During my studio visit, we are discussing about Papadimouli’s 2019 work Espacentres (The Positive Space) that immerses the viewer in the 'empty' spaces created by bodies in contact, materializing these voids into sculptural forms made of plywood that resonate with a physicality in dance. This evokes the recurring forms found in improvisational dance, where bodies engage with space and time, offering a parallel to Papadimouli’s exploration of spatial connection, evoking spaces that feel inclusive, where performers and viewers are guided by empathy and social connections through non-verbal, embodied interactions.

Through our conversation during studio visit, we explored how Papadimouli’s journey serves as a continuous contemplation of the relationship between space and the voids existing between individuals. She fosters empathy and collaboration by involving to her project/performances participants. This encounter seems to invite not only the partiicpant but also the viewer,  to examine the spatial and relational interplay between bodies and environments.Through this perspective, Papadimouli invites a deeper reflection on connection and interaction, highlighting the complexities of inhabiting shared environments and the significance of the spaces we collectively occupy. Reflecting on collective bodies that generate spatial and social dynamics, this conversation extends to Skinscapes, presented in two functions: inactive (on strike) and activated (embodied). In their dormant state, the sculptures are quiet, independent forms that evoke traditional depictions of the body, positioned I various ways or hanged on the wall. When activated, they become wearable, living surfaces made of textile, breathing large extensions of the body. The performance allows these wearable sculptures to reshape spatial arrangements, enabling the public to experience connection through the textile-made sculptures, collective presence, and movement within the space. This made me think: don’t we, in our own way, also envelop spaces with our unseen metaphysical essence? For me, Papadimouli’s work seems to resonate with this invisible yet tangible interplay between presence and space. I once read in a spiritual text: as we walk, our dresses might lightly touch against one another, and even these encounters, these crossings, have their own meaning. The performances seem to invite us to reflect not only on how we inhabit environments but also on how our unseen essence moves through and transforms the voids that connect us.

Nefeli Papadimouli. Skinscapes. Photo: @Robin Zenner

Mena Guerrero, Fondation Fiminco, Photo credit: Manuel Abella

Mena Guerrero
Mena Guerrero’s series of paintings seems to evoke the notion of resilience, drawing from elemental shapes to explore themes of endurance within the body. Guerrero is a multidisciplinary artist from Guatemala whose work encompasses painting, installation, and performance. Deeply influenced by music, philosophy, anthropology, and art therapy, her practice weaves personal narratives into universal themes. Guerrero’s installations and paintings reimagine her lived experiences, shaping them into symbolic worlds she calls “affective paraphernalia.” By incorporating multisensory and participatory elements, her work invites viewers to embark on an emotional journey, exploring themes of resilience, transformation, and connection.
During our conversation on my studio visit, Guerrero shared her interdisciplinary approach, blending music, philosophy, anthropology, and art therapy with her artistic practice. As we explored her work, it became evident how these diverse influences inform the thematic depth and emotional resonance of her pieces. Guerrero’s oil pastels on paper convey a sense of playfulness, as the vibrant colors and fluid lines combine with the rough, earthy textures of ceramics, offering a dynamic contrast between the softness of pastel colors and the solidity of clay. As we spoke, it became clear how these forms, particularly representations of volcanoes and triangular shapes, seemed to carry an inherent drive toward elevation. These images, along with the use of body fluids represented on canvas, play a crucial role in expanding and pushing the viewer to rethink conventional norms. This resonates with The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation by Delaney, Lupton, and Toth, a work that marks a shift in feminist art and literature by challenging patriarchal stigmas surrounding menstruation and redefining it as a source of empowerment. Guerrero’s work seem to engage with the cyclical nature of the body, emphasizing visibility and reclaiming experiences that are often subject to stigma.  These shapes suggest a journey toward a pinnacle, a hill or mountain peak, as if a narrative of resilience and the pursuit of infinite survival. This visual language of elevation speaks to the instinctive drive to rise, both physically and metaphorically, offering a powerful exploration of endurance. The presence of poetry emerges within Guerrero's work, as seen in her words, which carry symbolic connotations and allegorical meaning:

“Soy un volcán niña.
Soy paisaje de humo en una niña. Una destrucción niña,
una creación niña.”
​
I am a volcano girl.
I am a girl in a landscape of smoke. A girl of destruction,
a girl of creation.

Mena Guerrero - Volcanos. Credits @la ERRE

As we discussed in the studio, the role of ceramics and painting in her practice, it seems that these mediums are extensions of her exploration into creation, destruction, and transformation. Guerrero’s work feels ever-evolving, just as the volcanoes and mountains she depicts are in constant motion, erupting with both destruction which will led to new new beginnings.

JISOO Yoo - Ma chambre ressemble au mensonge

Jisoo Yoo
Shifting from Guerrero’s exploration of resilience and elemental forms, Jisoo Yoo captures everyday gestures and transforms them into reflections on relationships and dynamics within urban environments. In her practice, Yoo captures the everyday gestures through digital media, bridging routine movements and the complexity of contemporary urban life. Her installations use 3D prints and video to document the  gestures through the daily life, creating immersive environments that invites the viewers to reflect and immerse tehmselves into their own daily  routines. While discussing together in her studio, it becomes clear that Yoo's performances evoke profound reflections on the ephemerality and sensory dimensions of home and intimate spaces. Yoo’s performances with My House in the Air transform the transparent structure of balloons into a metaphorical architecture of both magnificence and fragility, highlighting the tension between the fleeting lightness of air and the permanence of domestic space. This installation invites reflection on how material objects and human connections influence and shape our perceptions of home and identity.

The emptiness of the objects surrounding us in a room prompts a critical examination of our relationship with materiality. During open studio day, we are invited to observe her interactive installation through screens she has placed, which emphasize the connection between the body and the environment. In this immersive space, human actions are shown as they allow for the relocation of objects typically found in a home, demonstrating the potential for movement and transformation within a domestic space. This seems to reflect the dynamic interaction between the physical body, domestic objects, and the transient nature of space, encouraging a reconsideration of our engagements with the material world. In this context, the domestic space embodies both intimacy and exposure, balancing the personal and the shared. A house, or a shared meal at the kitchen table, serves as a stage for the intimate theater of family life, where defining moments unfold, from birth to death. Engaging with this space brings a sense of closeness, yet its openness exposes one to others, capturing movement within a space that feels both familiar and unknown.

JISOO Yoo - Ma maison en l'air

Through their diverse practices, these artists offer profound insights into the interplay between the body, materiality, and shared experience. The intersections of body, surface, and space in their art provoke questions about how we inhabit our environments—both physical and emotional—and how these interactions shape our understanding of connection and memory. This is not merely an exploration of materials or gestures; it is an invitation to reconsider the layers of relationships we carry within us and project onto the spaces we occupy.

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This review of Fondation Fiminco by Burçak Yakıcı, takes part of the ARTICULATE PROMOTE Programme.

Created in 2017, the Fondation Fiminco is reinvesting an old industrial wasteland in Romainville, accessible by metro, on the outskirts of Paris, in order to make it an open-to-all resource hub for artists from all over the world.