At Museum van Bommel van Dam, ‘Material Memories’ brings together textiles, copper, crystals and organic matter in a meditation on care, inheritance and the histories held within materials.
30 September 2026
What can a material remember? In ‘Material Memories‘, Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien transforms textiles, copper, earth, crystals, plants and sound into monumental installations that explore the body, care and what is carried between generations. The exhibition marks the Paris-born artist’s first solo museum presentation in the Netherlands.
Growing up between Paris, Guadeloupe and Abidjan, Manlanbien draws upon a cultural inheritance spanning the Caribbean, Côte d’Ivoire and France. Materials carry personal and collective histories. Gold recalls its significance within Akan culture; copper evokes family workshops. At the same time, crystals and organic elements evoke healing, fertility and renewal.
Across six installations, ‘Material Memories’ creates spaces for contemplation and restoration. Works including Take Care, Mémoires des Corps and Temple du Soin consider relationships between the body, trauma, spirituality and the natural world. Two new installations, Myriades and Un Pied de Chance, incorporate fragrant plants, textiles, essential oils, poetry and sound, drawing from Manlanbien’s recent research into medicinal plants.
Rather than treating care as something passive, Manlanbien presents it as a material and collective practice, asking what we inherit, what we preserve and what we choose to pass forward.
This exhibition will be on view at Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo, the Netherlands, from 3 October 2026 to 7 March 2027.
