Marie De Decker

Visual artist and performer Marie De Decker develops a practice in which gilding leaves its traditional support to become line, structure and presence in space.

Through sculpture, drawing, installation and performance, she explores the relationships between the living world, light, memory and time. Gold is not used as ornament, but as a medium of revelation.

ARTISTIC APPROACH

I do not begin with a predetermined intention. My work takes shape through sensory experience, through contact with a material, a light, a place or a gesture. Rather than representing the living world, I seek to make its transformations perceptible: the shifting relationships between body, perception, memory and time.

The mangrove of Poudre d’Or is a matrix for my work. Neither entirely terrestrial nor fully maritime, it offers a model of interdependence, circulation and continuous transformation. The motifs of feather and scale emerge from this observation. Repeated, displaced and intertwined, they organise the works without a fixed centre, much like living systems.

Gold acts as a medium of revelation. Freed from the surface, it becomes line, structure and flow. My gesture is direct, often without a preliminary sketch; every action irreversibly engages the form. Seemingly dense, the sculpture is shaped by emptiness and extended through its shadow. My photographic training informs this attention to chiaroscuro, contrast and variations of light.

My Flemish and Fulani heritages — the lace of Flanders and the gold of the Mali Empire — are not signs to be illustrated, but lines of transmission. They connect the memory of gesture, matter and collective narratives. Fishing nets gathered from the ocean, natural materials and objects carrying a former life also retain their own histories. I do not seek to erase them, but to displace them, allowing the work to become a space of memory rather than a closed object.

In drawing as in performance, the gesture opens a shared duration. The work never reveals itself entirely: it invites the gaze to slow down, to circulate and to experience what remains at the heart of transformation.

Racines et reflets dans la mangrove de Poudre d’Or, île Maurice

POUDRE D’OR

At Poudre d’Or, the mangrove forms an in-between territory shaped by water, light and the tides. Roots, currents and matter meet without merging. Nothing is entirely stable; forms endure by transforming.

This ecosystem shapes my visual language. Feather and scale, weave and arabesque do not imitate nature: they extend its principles of organisation, based on repetition, variation and interdependence.

I also gather fishing nets and discarded materials there, marked by their time in contact with the ocean. Once incorporated into the works, they do not lose their history. They become fragments of a memory shared by the living world.

  • Marie De Decker’s hands shaping a gold filigree sculpture

    GESTURE

    Gold filigree takes shape through a direct gesture, often without a preliminary sketch. Drawing on the techniques of gilding and textile work, the process I have developed frees gold from the surface and allows it to inhabit space. The form is constructed line by line; every decision is irreversible.

  • Détail d’une sculpture en or et de son ombre projetée.

    LIGHT

    My training in photography shapes my relationship to matter. Chiaroscuro, reflections and shadow are not added effects: they extend the work and alter its perception. I work with twenty-seven shades of gold, left unvarnished so that their light can continue to change with the space and the viewer’s gaze.

  • Filet de pêche, nacre et matières naturelles utilisés dans les œuvres.

    MATERIALS

    Gathered fishing nets, mother-of-pearl, plant fibres and objects carrying a former life enter the works together with the memory of their uses and environments. I do not seek to neutralise this history, but to make it perceptible, allowing matter to become a site of transmission.

BIOGRAPHY

A multidisciplinary artist trained in fine arts, photography and graphic design, Marie De Decker first became known for her portrait work. Since 2022, she has developed a practice combining sculpture, installation, drawing and performance, drawing on the techniques of gilding and textile work, which she transforms through processes of her own.

Her work is shaped by questions of origin and transmission. She brings two inheritances into dialogue — the lace of Flanders and the gold of the Mali Empire — with forms observed in the mangrove of Poudre d’Or. Her practice incorporates natural materials, gathered fishing nets and objects carrying a former life. Gold acts as a medium of revelation, connecting matter, memory and light.

Born in Paris in 1988, Marie De Decker lives and works between Luxembourg and Poudre d’Or, Mauritius. Her work has notably been presented during Paris Design Week and at Révélations, the international biennial of craft and creation held at the Grand Palais. In 2026, she is taking part in Homo Faber in Venice and in the Africa Legacy exhibition in Brussels.

SELECTED CV

EDUCATION

2022 — Training in art gilding, Atelier Dufala, France

2011 — Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Haute École Francisco Ferrer, Brussels, Belgium

2010 — Bachelor’s degree in Photography, École Agnès Varda, Brussels, Belgium

2007 — Environmental Art and Public Space programme, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium

2006 — Baccalauréat in Applied Arts, Lycée polyvalent Ernest Hemingway, Nîmes, France

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026 — Et sous la mer, la lumière, Showroom Exquisse, Monte Carlo, Monaco

2026 — Variations, Castel Paris, LHOOQ programme, curated by Agathe Anglionin, Paris, France

2023 — Triptyque, Elvinger Hoss Prussen, Luxembourg

2013 — Origine, TAG Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 — Homo Faber, Michelangelo Foundation, Venice, Italy

2026 — Africa Legacy, Brussels, Belgium

2026 — Paris Design Week, Paris, France

2025 — Révélations, International Biennial of Craft and Creation, Grand Palais, Paris, France

2025 — Bel Ouvrage, Paris Design Week, Palais abbatial de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, France

2025 — De Mains de Maîtres Biennial, Luxembourg

2025 — Luxembourg Art Week, Delen Private Bank, Luxembourg

2024 — Paris Design Week, Atelier Gustave and Galerie Montpensier, Palais-Royal, Paris, France

2013 — Rencontres Photographiques de la ville d’Arlon, Arlon, Belgium

2011 — Untitled Expo, integrated project by students of École de Photographie Agnès Varda, Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Belgium

SELECTED PROJECTS, RESIDENCIES AND COMMISSIONS

2026 — XTANT, artistic leadership residency and programme, led by Kavita Parmar, with the support of the Michelangelo Foundation

2026 — Wine Meets Art, Domaine Claude Bentz, Luxembourg

2026 — Eggxtraordinaire, second edition, De Mains de Maîtres, jury member

2025 — Une Vision, commission created to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the reign of H.R.H. Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and the fortieth anniversary of SES

2023 — Charity auction in support of Fondation Cancer Luxembourg, Lux-Auction, Drouot

2023–2026 — Permanent display, Adamah Fine Arts, Mauritius

2023–2026 — Permanent display, Windeshausen, Luxembourg

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

WHAT ENDURES, WHAT TRANSFORMS

“Marie De Decker’s work unfolds as a space of passage, where memory, matter and imagination are woven into a single movement. Gold ceases to be perceived as a noble material and becomes a flow, guiding the gaze and revealing forms destined both to appear and to fade.”

Agathe Anglionin
Architect, curator and art critic

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