During a research and creative residency at the Maison forte de Hautetour in June and July 2026, the artist duo Sarah Laaroussi and Matteo Magnant (Atelier Bicéphale) are writing a new chapter in the performative and participatory project Habiter la pente in Saint-Gervais. The project began in Thiers, a mid-altitude mountain town where they live, and explores the relationships we maintain with our environment and its evolution.
During a research and creative residency at the Maison forte de Hautetour in June and July 2026, the artist duo Sarah Laaroussi and Matteo Magnant, Atelier Bicéphale, are writing a new chapter in the performative and participatory project Habiter la pente in Saint-Gervais. The project began in Thiers, a mid-altitude mountain town where they live, and explores the relationships we maintain with our environment and its evolution. Drawing on scientific and ethnographic approaches, they set out to encounter the living beings—human and non-human—that inhabit a territory, gathering their oral or silent testimonies and documenting the traces of changes gradually taking place, sometimes imperceptibly, yet clearly visible. Using sculptural tools, measuring devices, or simply their senses, they attempt to capture these changes within the territory and make them legible.
Relevés transforms the Maison forte de Hautetour into a space for experimentation, production, and civic dialogue focused on the future of the territory and on "the creation of measuring tools" that reconnect us with our environments.
A contemporary art magazine published by Analogues, Semaine focuses on the development of art and exhibitions in time and proposes an approach to art in the making, revealing the extent and diversity of the artistic territory in France today.
Trained in a range of skills and techniques, from craft to participatory design, which they bring into their sculptural and performative practice, Sarah Laaroussi and Matteo Magnant (Atelier Bicéphale) work at the intersection of several disciplines, including art, performance, craft, architecture, anthropology, and history. They describe themselves as contextual artists and enjoy designing bespoke structures for the spaces that host them, turning constraints to their advantage in order to give meaning to their work and considering all the parameters involved in the ecological dimension of their projects.
Graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, their work has been presented in solo, duo, and group exhibitions at institutions in France and abroad.
