Sophie Zénon, Les replis du temps

Les replis du temps

Sophie Zénon
18.01 → 22.02.2026

Opening
Sunday, 18.01.2026
14 → 19h
In the presence of the artist

Exhibition
until 22.02.2026

For her first solo exhibition at Lee Bauwens Gallery, the French photographer Sophie Zénon presents a body of work exploring themes of memory, history, loss, and the passage of time.

This exhibition is part of the European Month of Photography and the 10^th edition of the Photo Brussels Festival from 22.01 to 22.02.2026.

Often approached through the relationship between the body and the landscape,Les replis du temps, presents a body of work exploring themes of memory, history, loss, and the passage of time.

Sophie Zénon practice unfolds a multilayered narrative, where photographs, reactivated archives, installations, and printmaking techniques interact, revealing an approach deeply rooted in experimentation, materiality, and gesture.

Through organic and poetic works, Sophie Zénon superimposes layers of time, evoking a sensitive reflection on fragility, impermanence, and the breath of life.

Sophie Zénon (b. 1965, France) is a photographic artist living and working in Paris.

After studying contemporary history, art history, and ethnology with a focus on shamanism in East Asia (Mongolia, Siberia) under the guidance of anthropologist Roberte Hamayon, Sophie Zénon began her practice in the late 1990s with delicate miniature landscapes created in Mongolia. Fascinated by the intimate relationship of its inhabitants with nature and the spiritual forces that animate it, she traveled extensively in the country over more than ten years.

From 2008 to 2011, she produced several works addressing questions of the representation of the body after death (In Case We Die cycle). Beginning in 2010, she initiated a new series, Arborescences, exploring grief, exile, and family memory, while examining landscapes and the connections between territory, memory, and self-construction.

Exhibition view at Lee-Bauwens Gallery
Photography by Sebastian Schutyser

Herbarium Florum Obsidionalium

Sophie Zénon most recent works (Rémanences, since 2017) focus on the memory of landscapes, particularly war-torn landscapes, approached through the lens of vegetation—at once scarred, a marker of history and its traces, fragile yet nourishing and capable of renewal.

Her works are included in public collections (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Mobilier national, Manufacture de Sèvres, Musée de la Photographie de Bièvres…) as well as in numerous private collections. They have been exhibited across Europe and internationally since 2000 in prestigious venues such as the Palais de Tokyo, the BnF, the Mobilier national, Galerie Thessa Herold, the Fondation Pierre Bergé & Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, as well as the Château d’Eau (Toulouse), Fondation Fernet-Branca (Saint-Louis), Fondation François Schneider (Wattwiller), and the Houston Center for Photography (USA).

She has received several recognitions, including support for artistic creation from the Fondation des Artistes (2022), the Eurazeo Prize (2019), the Photography Residency Award from the Fondation des Treilles (2015), the Kodak Critics’ Prize (1999), and has been a finalist for the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière / Académie des Beaux-Arts Photography Prize (2024), the Villa Kujoyama (2023), and the Niépce Prize (2015).

Sophie Zénon regularly participates in conferences (Gens d’Images, Les Rendez-vous de l’Histoire de Blois, DPMA, Ministry of the Armed Forces), seminars at the INHA (National Institute of Art History), and at various universities.

Furthermore, having worked for over 20 years on gestures and craftsmanship in the arts, she served as a member of the Scientific Committee of the CIPGP (Collège International de Photographie du Grand Paris), created by Michel Poivert, contributing to a project aimed at recognizing pre-digital photographic techniques as part of UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage. In 2024, she was awarded the National Commission celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Maître d’Art / Students program. She also acted as an artistic collaborator for the exhibition L’Esprit commence et finit au bout des doigts at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in October 2019, organized by the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, with which she collaborated for 12 years.

Currently, Sophie Zénon is also exhibiting in the Château d’Eau Gallery, Toulouse, France, with the exhibition L’humus du monde.

Exhibition view at Lee-Bauwens Gallery
Photography by Sebastian Schutyser