Andrea Scippe
“I see space as something fluid, where objects aren’t static but exist in conversation with one another.”
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I was born in the countryside near Lyon, France, in 1998, and I'm a Franco-Italian visual artist. I have lived and worked in Paris for eight years. I obtained my DNSEP from the École nationale supérieure d'art de Paris-Cergy in 2022 and spent a year at HGB Leipzig in Germany.
I have participated in several residencies, including Villa Belleville in France and PADA in Portugal. At ENSAPC, I focused heavily on painting—working on both canvas and kraft paper. Over time, my large collages began to take up more and more space, prompting me to question space itself. This led me to explore sculpture and installation. However, I’ve never truly left painting; instead, I now paint on different mediums.
Your work often features found objects arranged in ways that seem both intentional and unstable. What interests you about working with these materials, and how do you see their balance or form contributing to the meaning of the piece?
What draws me to working with found objects is their inherent history and the traces of their past use. I’m fascinated by how these materials can be rearranged into forms that feel both deliberate and fragile—like they are caught in a moment of transition. This balance between structure and instability creates a tension that invites the viewer to question how objects relate to each other and to ourselves.
It also evokes ideas of resilience and transformation, where an object’s meaning isn’t fixed but constantly shifts depending on its arrangement and context. Each form, material, and assemblage awakens moments of interaction: between materials (metal, wood, ceramics, textiles, etc.), between objects themselves, and between those who engage with them.
These points of encounter spark curiosity, encouraging us to touch, handle, look, and exchange. My aim is not to create purely decorative or ornamental objects, but rather to emphasize details and deformations—highlighting forced connections, joints, and seams that bind the different parts together.
4 characters forming a different space depending on positioning, installation at «dysfunctional living room». PADA, 2024
Detail character 2. 2024
Detail character 1. 2024
Your practice involves collecting and preserving objects that might otherwise be discarded. How do you choose the materials you work with, and how important is their past history to the final piece?
I often compare my production sites to playgrounds—I need time to find, discover, and return to them. My discoveries are mostly accidental, shaped by the environment I’m working in. I do a lot of my material gathering on foot, which influences how I think about my work. I don’t go out searching for the “perfect” piece of wood; instead, I pick up what I come across.
The materials I choose often come from everyday life—objects that have been used, discarded, or abandoned: an old board, a door, a blanket. Their history is essential because it contributes to the narrative of the work.
I’m not necessarily looking for a specific resonance between materials at the outset. Instead, I’m drawn to where I find them, who they belonged to, and how they have aged. In my work, preservation isn’t just about keeping an object intact but about reactivating its memory in a new context. I aim to reveal traces of past interactions and allow these objects to evolve within a new structure, alongside materials that may seem unrelated at first.
When I assemble them—by playing with them—I create links between them, making them “talk” to each other. It’s not always easy. Sometimes I struggle to connect silk with wood or wool with paper. But like characters in a conversation, the pieces eventually find their own dialogue.
Your installations encourage viewers to consider space, movement, and the unseen connections between objects. How do you approach composition in your work, and what kind of experience do you hope it creates for those who encounter it?
For me, composition is about creating encounters—between objects, materials, and the people who experience the work. I see space as something fluid, where objects aren’t static but exist in conversation with one another.
I aim to disrupt expectations of how we move through a space, encouraging moments of pause, moments of noticing details, moments of questioning how things fit together. By assembling objects in sometimes unexpected ways, I invite collective reflection on our relationship with objects and the past, with shared space, and with the act of encounter itself. Each moment becomes an opportunity for interaction and co-creation.
«Dysfunctional living room» Solo Show, PADA, Portugal 2024
Table, 2024
Detail, 2024
Bedhead, 2024
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day. What is your studio routine like?
Since leaving school in 2022, my studios have mainly been residencies. I’ve realized that this way of working suits me—I have intense periods of production over a few months, sometimes abroad, followed by quieter periods.
I’ve been told it’s amusing to watch me work—I move around constantly, circling my pieces, testing things over and over again. Things fall, they break, I reassemble them. It’s like a game.
My studios are usually quite full. I like having everything accessible—my sewing machine out, my woodworking tools, my paper. That’s how I see what can come into conversation.
That said, I don’t have a strict routine. At the moment, I’m in Paris, but since studio spaces here are too expensive and too small, I’m working on something else. Right now, I’m preparing two editions that will be released in June 2025 for the Fanzine Festival in Paris.
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
The work of Monica Mays and Antonia Phoebe Brown.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline that you’d like to share with us?
In May 2025, I’ve been invited by Paris-based curator Agathe Cotte to participate in a group show at Les Docs (as part of the Fanzine Festival hors les murs). The exhibition will explore the limits of the book-object and the publishing object in relation to other artistic and craft fields.
Also, this summer, I’ll be in residence in Iceland for several months at the SIM Residency!
All images courtesy of the artist
Interview publish date: 10/03/2025
Interview by Richard Starbuck
