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From today, 14 February, the exhibition “In the Movement of the Soul” by textile artist Laurine Malengreau is on view at the Ģederts Eliass Jelgava History and Art Museum. The exhibition will be open until 1 April. A meeting with the artist will take place at the museum on 13 March at 3:00 PM.

Laurine Malengreau creates textile art as a vital contemporary language. She works with the primacy of gesture. She listens to what the fiber wishes to become. By layering materials one upon another, she gives them a distinctive presence, which in turn provides her with a sense of primal joy. She firmly believes that art expands goodness and benevolence in things. Inspired by the pursuit of the unique, her works reflect profound moments of introspection. In seeking this vital impulse, she creates vivid works with mythological and chimerical roots.

The exhibition “In the Movement of the Soul” is an invitation to touch, to see, and to slow down. Matter and movement, intuition and transcendence merge into a quiet strength. It reminds us that the soul of matter lies not in what it says, but in how it breathes. It asks us not to look more carefully, but to feel more deeply. The works on display resist summary — they must be experienced, approached, and felt. One can sense weather conditions, breath, vibrations. Some works appear blooming, others smoldering or evaporating. They might be described as embodied abstraction, expressed with respect and precision.

Laurine Malengreau lives and draws inspiration from Aubusson, a town renowned for one of the oldest textile traditions in Europe. Yet her works are not nostalgic. On the contrary, she transforms this heritage, giving it a radical softness. Her chosen material, Nuno Silk, combines wool and silk through heat, friction, and handwork. There is no weaving here. No needles, no threads. Everything is gesture — deliberate, powerful, and intimate. Created on the floor, often on an architectural scale, her works unfold as textile paintings — impressive, topographical, and immeasurable. They do not depict; they radiate. The material is always present, yet never static. It becomes atmosphere.

Laurine Malengreau (born in 1980 in Belgium) has lived for more than thirteen years in Aubusson, the tapestry capital of France. Her studio, located in a renovated former textile factory renamed “La Main nue,” is itself a metaphor — a place where memory, process, and artistic renewal coexist. After completing her studies in art history, she began mastering the Nuno Silk technique in Madrid. She is the recipient of the 2020 French Artisan Innovator Award and is the only artist creating large-scale works using the Nuno Silk technique. Malengreau continues the great tradition of wall décor, delighting art collectors and interior designers around the world.