Naomi Maury

The Saint-Lys Radio Museum ‘The voice of the ocean’ in Saint-Lys in Haute-Garonne was inaugurated on 12 October 2024. This scientific and technical museum traces the history of maritime radio in Saint-Lys, which for 50 years, from 1948 to 1998, ensured the safety of sailors around the world and maintained the link between land and sea, before these waves were dethroned by satellite links.

With the opening of Naomi Maury's exhibition, the young museum is embarking on its first full season, with the opening of a temporary exhibition space that echoes its permanent exhibition space. The exhibition is co-produced by the municipality of Saint-Lys and Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, in partnership with the Rosine Bet special care home in Saint-Lys.

Naomi Maury

The artist Naomi Maury, who lives and works in Sète, was born in 1991 in Bédarieux, Hérault. A graduate of the École supérieure d'art Annecy Alpes, she won the Mezzanine Sud - Prix des Amis des Abattoirs in 2021 and the Prix Occitanie Médicis in 2022.

That same year, she was invited by Les Abattoirs and CEMES in Toulouse to co-produce ‘Le chant des particules au vent solaire’. Following meetings with physicists, she created a series of halos of light in the research centre's ‘ball’, complete with sculptures and prostheses that could be activated by performers. In 2023, the Musée régional d'art contemporain Occitanie in Sérignan gave her her first major exhibition, ‘Exosqueletonlight’, and she entered the region's public collections (MRAC and Les Abattoirs).

Naomi Maury is interested in the relationship between humans and non-human species, whether animal, plant or robotic. Drawing on books about living species that have disappeared or are on the brink of extinction, the artist creates hybrid forms, in volume or in drawing, that highlight the issues of interconnection and interdependence between species.

The theme of the exoskeleton and the symbiosis between the living and the non-living are at the heart of Naomi Maury's work.

Bathe in light

Naomi Maury is presenting an immersive exhibition exploring the metamorphosis of the body and the relationship between humans, machines and living species. The exhibition also incorporates drawings and sounds from interactions with residents and carers at the MAS, resulting from the artistic workshops she ran there from March to May 2025.

In this way, the artist continues to reflect on how machines can liberate bodies while promoting interdependence between species, rather than simply physical emancipation. She also looks at the impact of technology on bodies that are invisible and do not conform to productive norms. Light, a major component of her work, is at once symbolic, spiritual and therapeutic. According to Naomi Maury, ‘light bewitches materials, creating an immaterial space that influences the unconscious. Light encompasses us in the same way that a sound frequency encompasses us.

Curator: Emmanuelle Hamon