Mariane Ibrahim is pleased to present Intersections, an exhibition bringing together the work of Elsa-Louise Manceaux (Paris, 1985) and Hilda Palafox (Mexico City, 1982), both based in Mexico City. Coinciding with the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between France and Mexico, the exhibition reaffirms the gallery’s commitment to fostering connections between the artistic scenes of both countries. In 2024, Mariane Ibrahim presented Los sueños de la luz / Les rêves de la lumière at its Mexico City gallery, an exhibition that introduced the work of five French artists to Mexico for the first time. With Intersections, the gallery extends this exchange in the opposite direction, bringing to Paris the work of two artists whose practices have developed in close dialogue with Mexico. Spanning the gallery’s two floors, the exhibition devotes a distinct space to each artist, highlighting both the singularity of their practices and the points of convergence that bring them into dialogue.
On the ground floor, Elsa-Louise Manceaux presents Surfaces of Exchange, an exhibition centered around a new radio-painting alongside a group of silent paintings. Throughout her work, painting, language, sound, and moving image converge to expand the boundaries of the pictorial medium. Far from conceiving painting as a static image, Manceaux approaches it as a space in which the written and spoken word, together with video, continuously reshape the composition, raising questions about the nature of artistic media, perception, attention, and the possibility of representing the intangible.
On the first floor, Hilda Palafox presents Petrichor, a body of work that deepens her ongoing investigation into ecofeminism, collective experience, and the relationship between the body and the landscape. Evoking the dampness of the earth after rainfall and the scent released when the first drops touch the ground, the paintings depict monumental female figures who support one another, negotiate, and labor collectively until they merge with their surroundings. Drawing on the legacies of muralism and modernism while engaging with contemporary concerns, Palafox develops a painterly language that imagines new forms of sisterhood, solidarity, and coexistence with the living world.
