Cynthia Montier lives and works between Strasbourg and Rome. She graduated in 2019 from the University of Strasbourg and the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi (UQAC), and in 2020 earned the certificate for socially engaged artists (CFPI) at the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR) in 2020. In 2023, she was awarded a residency as part of the exchange program between CEAAC and the curatorial platform IUNO in Rome.
Her research project Per Grazia e Rivolta – the subject of the eponymous exhibition in CEAAC’s Project Space – explores the connections between grace and revolt by linking votive techniques from the folk rituals of central and southern Italy with activist practices from social movements, particularly through a female perspective. As an extension of her residency, Cynthia Montier carried out a two-year investigation (2024–2025) at the intersection of historical, micro-anthropological, and sociological fields, focusing on what connects miracles with justice. Immersed in the regions of Lazio, Campania, and Puglia, she collected, observed, and documented objects, gestures, traditions, protest songs, processions, and ritual dances. Her research centres on how these tangible, intangible, and oral forms seek – often ambivalently – to give shape to vows, desires, and emotions.
Through these practices, poised between spiritual invocation and political demand, emerges a form of ‘enchantment’ – in the sung, collective sense described by historian Peter Linebaugh – where protection and resistance intermingle, and magical tradition intertwines with contemporary social struggles, particularly feminist and transfeminist movements.
For her first solo exhibition at the CEAAC, Cynthia Montier presents a display bringing together votive objects from the Museo delle Civiltà (MuCiv – Museum of Folk Arts Traditions) in Rome, alongside photographic, video, and sound archives from Archivia. Archivi, Biblioteche, Centri di documentazione delle donne (Archives, librairies, women documentation centers) and the Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale (ICPI – Central Institute for Intangible Cultural Heritage).
These elements highlight the diversity of forms through which votive practices take shape – including ex-votos, lucky charms, amulets, relics, banners, scarves, tarot, devotional images, incantations, songs, and rituals – while also revealing how they serve to bind intention to matter and act upon or transform reality.
With objects and visual materials from the Museo delle Civiltà (MuCiv – Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions), the Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale (ICPI – Central Institute for Intangible Cultural Heritage), and Archivia. Archivi, Biblioteche, Centri di documentazione delle donne (Archives, Libraries, Documentation Centers of Women), in Rome.
Cynthia Montier’s research received support from the ADAGP research grant (Temps de recherche artistique) and the Grand Est Region’s “aide à la diffusion” for her show at IUNO, a contemporary art research centre in Rome. (11.04 – 30.05.2025).
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Special thanks to Stefania Baldinotti, Marion Briatta, Cecilia Canziani, Carlo Codacci Pisanelli, Stefania Consigliere, Massimo Da Re, Ylenia Di Blasio, Serena Francone, Giulia Gaibisso, Ilaria Gianni, Kora, Alice Labor, Vito Lattanzi, Marinela Maffei, Marco Marcotulli, Francesca Romana Uccella, Vincenzo Santoro, Anna-Maria Stefanelli, Marco Stefanelli, Andrea Viliani.
Entrée gratuite
du mercredi au dimanche, 14h-18h.
Fermé les jours fériés.
Centre d’art
Duo -Y-, Mirage
22.03 – 07.09.2025
PROGRAMMATION CULTURELLE
Performance Après la pluie, il y a l’odeur du pétrichor
De l’artiste Lise Ruffié
- Vendredi 20 juin, 19h
- CEAAC, 7 rue de l’Abreuvoir
- Tout public. Gratuit, sans réservation
Visite au bord de l’Ill
Avec Béatrice Pipart
- Samedi 5 juillet, 15h
- Départ du CEAAC, 7 rue de l’Abreuvoir
- Tout public. Gratuit, sans réservation
un mILLième, résidence artistique et ateliers participatifs
Par Nicolas Couturier & Cécile Tonizzo
- Du lundi 7 au vendredi 11 juillet, 10h-17h
- CSC du Marais, 8 rue de Touraine, 67300 Schiltigheim
- Tout public. Gratuit, sans réservation
Performance Dame di Fiume
De l’artiste Cynthia Montier
- Samedi 30 août
- Plus d’infos à venir
Lancement de la publication La ligne des amers
Des artistes Alain Willaume et David Poullard
- Samedi 30 août
- Plus d’infos à venir